Outcasts
by Hank's Lady
Summary: Two members of the wolfpack, shunned by their communities, return to La Push. It would seem obvious for them to turn to each other when thrown together, but the opposite happens.
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: Sadly I do not own any of the Twilight characters, they are Ms Meyer's creation. However, there will probably be a few of my own added eventually, I usually make a few up to fill things out. I'm rating this 'M' as usual for language, violence and sex and it's slash, people, so if that's not your thing, turn back now :o)

This one is slightly different to my previous Twilight fics in that I'm writing from two different points of view, rather than sticking with just the one. So I hope I can do them both justice at the same time! The first chapter introduces you to both of my 'outcasts' and as usual, I appreciate you all reading and reviews are very welcome! :o))

CHAPTER ONE

**Paul's POV**

I was born on the La Push reservation on 8 March 1990 to Mick and Julia Lahote. I didn't really remember the place because we left when I was four years old, before I had chance to go to school or make friends. Dad always told me we left because of the problems he and Mom were having, which he blamed totally on her, but I found out much later he cheated on her with another woman and leaving La Push had been a last ditch attempt to save their marriage after Mom threatened to leave over it.

We wound up in Tacoma in a two bedroom town house two blocks from the steel factory where Dad found a job. Mom waited tables in a diner and a few months later I started at the local school. I hadn't had the opportunity to interact with other kids in La Push and had no idea how to make friends, but even if I had I wouldn't have had much chance. The white kids in Tacoma hated me on sight, calling me names like 'Redskin' and other insults that even at five years old stung like hell and made me feel like an outcast.

I didn't bother my parents by telling them what was going on; they already had enough problems trying to patch things up and even at that young age I was aware that me whining and complaining would only make things worse. I put up with it for a couple years, during which time Mom and Dad's already volatile relationship didn't improve, going from endless charged silences to screaming matches and smashing crockery where I would slink away to my room and clamp the headphones to my CD player over my ears, blasting my eardrums with rock music to block it out.

When I turned eight I decided enough was enough. It was a rare occasion when I ate lunch at school because the band of little white thugs who had followed me from my first day usually lay in wait for me to steal my money with the use of threats or sometimes punches and kicks. There were five of them, led my a tall boy a year older than all of us. His name was Freddie and the other four looked up to him like he was a god. Anything he said the others did and more often than not their favourite pastime was picking on me.

That Friday I knew they would be waiting for me at the school gates when I arrived and I purposefully went early, telling Dad I was working on a project with some other kid and needed to see him before school. So that day I was there first. I waited behind the big tree just outside the gates until I saw Freddie approaching, alone. Apparently his little gang got together right here before I arrived each day. As he drew closer I walked out from behind the tree, dropped my backpack on the ground and stood waiting for him, my fists clenched and my legs trembling, determined he wouldn't see anxiety in my face.

"Lahote! What are you doing here this early? Shit the bed, did you?" Freddie sneered.

"I just thought I'd catch up with you before your buddies get here to do your dirty work for you, you cowardly piece of shit," I said, hoping my voice wasn't shaking. He was about six inches taller than me, but thin as a rail.

"We'll see who's cowardly, dirty Redskin bastard!"

Freddie advanced on me quickly and I summoned up as much strength as I could manage and directed it down my right arm and into my fist. As I flung it out in his direction, angled slightly upwards, I was somewhat amazed when the fist crashed into his jaw and threw him backwards and off his feet. I stood there, rubbing my hand, eyes wide as I stared at Freddie, coughing and spluttering blood, tears spurting from his eyes. He didn't get up for a couple minutes, by which time two of his cohorts had arrived and my surprising success filled me with bravado.

"Hey, dickheads; want some more of what I just gave him?" I growled.

"_You_ hit _Freddie_?" one of them said in disbelief.

"Yeah. Want me to hit you?" I took a few steps towards him and he immediately backed away, ignoring Freddie who was now on his feet, blood still dripping from his mouth.

"Paul Lahote! What do you think you're doing?" Mr Brown, my tutor demanded as he charged out of the gate at that moment. He grabbed me roughly by the collar of my jacket. "My office, now. Move it!" He called out for another teacher to attend to Freddie and then marched me away so quickly I was almost dragged off of my feet.

Mr Brown, to put it mildly, was not impressed by my efforts to stop my bullying and explanations that I had been trying to defend myself and was actually outside the school grounds at the time made no difference. I was sent home with a flea in my ear, accompanied by a note to Dad explaining my arrival and instructions to return on Monday with an improved attitude, otherwise suspension would be considered. I thought this was pretty unfair, given that Freddie and his pals had gotten away with kicking the shit out of me for almost three years, but I supposed it was my own fault for never having said anything.

I walked home slowly, ripped up the letter and tossed it into the garbage, then spent the rest of the day in my room listening to music and watching television. Mom and Dad were both working until into the evening and even at eight I already had my own door key and was expected to get myself home and help myself to dinner – usually sandwiches or a microwave meal. I relished the day out of school and only wished I had taken a swing at Freddie sooner.

When I returned to school on Monday, no one waited for me at the school gates, I bought lunch from the canteen and walked home unmolested afterwards. If anything, some of the other kids looked at me warily and I felt somewhat smug that I had gone from being the victim to the bully with a single punch. However, when Dad came home from work I discovered he had received a call from Freddie's father who had apparently been trying to reach him since Friday, telling him to keep his little thug of a son in line otherwise he would be forced to advise the police that I had knocked out two of Freddie's teeth. When I thought about it, I was a little surprised he hadn't contacted the cops already.

I almost expected a punch from Dad, or being sent to my room at the very least, but I got neither. To my amazement he listened to my side of the story first and seemed proud of me for standing up to an older kid. He told me I'd been pretty grown up about the way I dealt with it; giving the kid a taste of his own medicine rather than running home whining like a baby.

Over the next few years, I consistently got myself into fights and became known as one of the kids to be avoided. I had my only little gang of bullies just like Freddie had done, only mine were tougher and would never have fallen on the ground crying if one of them lost a few teeth. My behaviour stemmed a lot from seeing Mom and Dad yelling at each other at home and Dad praising me for using my fists and I thought it was cool that most of the other kids were scared of me. As I grew older, I only got worse.

Dad gave me the customary birds and the bees talk when I was eleven, but he had his own take on it. It turned out he was hugely homophobic; not that I had a clue what that meant until he explained and suggested my fists be put to good use should I catch boys looking at me inappropriately, particularly in the sports block changing rooms. I couldn't imagine that ever happening, but at that stage I couldn't really imagine girls looking at me either. All I thought about was rock music, violent computer games and motorcycles. But puberty followed eventually and along with it, the horrifying realisation that it was boys I was noticing. Dad's views had been so well drummed into me with his frequent yelling at the television whenever he accidentally flipped channels and caught an image of two guys kissing or the news reporting on the activities of a local gay judge or something similar, that the thought I may be turning out like that sickened me and I began to hate myself.

It was only a matter of time before I did get one of those 'looks' Dad warned me about. I was fourteen and had just finished changing into my football gear in a corner, my back to everyone else so I wasn't tempted to let my eyes land on any other boy's half undressed form. I turned around and there was this blond kid, who I knew to be called Gene, staring at me like he wanted to take a bite out of me or something. A couple of other boys were watching him watching me and I went cold all over.

"What the fuck are you looking at?" I demanded.

"Um...n-nothing," stammered Gene, flushing scarlet and taking a couple of steps backwards.

"Yeah, he was, he was getting an eyeful of your ass," Dave, one of my gang, said from behind me.

"Fucking little fag!" I snarled at once and automatically launched myself across the changing room at Gene, my fists leading the way as usual. The first punch knocked him down and then I dropped to one knee, pinning him by the shoulder while I slammed my other fist repeatedly into his face. His turquoise blue eyes stared up at me in pain and fear as he choked and sobbed and the quick pang of sorrow and empathy I felt for him only served to mortify and enrage me further. Dave and my other two friends, Harry and Chris, cheered me on, but the football coach appeared and dragged me off before I could do any serious damage.

I was expelled from school over it and told by the head teacher that I should expect to be arrested as soon as Gene's father had reported me, but curiously nothing ever came of it. I was enrolled in a new school and that was all. It was several weeks before I found out by overhearing one of Mom and Dad's fights, that Dad had been to see Gene's father and threatened him into keeping quiet.

That fight was the last one I ever heard Mom and Dad have. She packed up and walked out two days later with barely a goodbye. For a while I thought she simply didn't want me, but Dad told me she had been all set to take me with her until he had said in no uncertain terms that I was to stay with him. He didn't want me growing up with no father and running the risk of turning into a little fag myself.

With Mom gone, Dad saw no reason to continue living in Tacoma and in less than a year we had packed up and were on our way back to La Push, which he said he wished he had never left. He had already got a job waiting for him there, had rented a house for us to live in and enrolled me in the reservation's high school starting the third week in August, which gave me two months to do whatever the hell I liked. We would be back with our own people and I would no longer be an outcast at school. But it didn't solve that one other problem that still bugged me on a daily basis; my sickening and persistent longing for another boy.

**Embry's POV**

I had spent my whole life in Neah Bay so far – except for a week long trip each summer to Seattle to visit Mom's sister, my Aunt Tanya, who had married a white boy when she was seventeen and escaped their parents' traditional values and way of living.

Mom never married and fifteen years later still suffered the shame of having given birth to me without even a boyfriend being in evidence. She never told me who my father was, only that he wasn't around and hadn't wanted to support her when he found out she was pregnant. Even my grandparents didn't know who he was – or if they did, they weren't telling me. So I grew up with the stigma of being the bastard child of the Makah tribe and was mostly shunned by the other kids because of it. Everyone else my age had a Mom and a Dad who were married properly before they came into the world, but me...I was mostly ignored and blamed for the fact that my unknown father hadn't been able to keep his pants on and Mom hadn't cared enough for the tribe's traditions to say no to him.

I had another problem that I knew would only make matters worse for me if anyone were to know about it. Gramps had given me the facts of life talk when I was twelve, deeming it unfitting that Mom should take it upon herself to do it, but even then I'd known that what he was telling me wasn't for me. I liked boys; there was no two ways about it. Over the next couple of years I hoped fervently that I would find someone else who felt the same; somebody I could talk to, maybe even be with, but as far as I was aware no one on the reservation was gay and if they were, they were keeping it to themselves the same way I was. From the very little it was spoken about, if I were to let slip I would only bring more shame on the Call family and turn myself into a complete outcast.

I didn't really have any friends and I was a pretty lonely kid. Mom did her best to get us invited to barbeques and outings to the beach with other people with children, but because of her history she had few friends herself and her efforts were usually in vain. It was only when I turned fifteen in May 2005 that things began to change, and not for the better.

A new family had recently moved onto the reservation. At least they were new to me – Mr and Mrs Lucien and their fifteen year old son, Will, were Makah and had lived in Neah Bay some years before when I was too little to remember them. They'd been living in Portland, Oregon as Mr Lucien had found a higher paying job there, but it had recently come to an end and they had decided to return so that Will could go back to his roots. Having been away so long, he was immediately considered an outsider by the other kids at school, despite the fact that he was part of the tribe and came from a decent hard-working Makah family. Having been there my whole life, I knew exactly how he was feeling and befriended him on his first day in school, when he had to share my desk in most classes due to the other kids having always avoided sitting with me.

Will and I hit it off from the first few moments and finally I found I had a friend – someone I could talk to about anything, confide in and trust with my deepest thoughts. Someone who told me within a week that he was gay. Living in Portland, no one had cared how you behaved or what your preferences were, although he hadn't actually come out to his parents yet and dreaded doing it, particularly now they were back inside the rather more narrow-minded boundaries of Neah Bay. But in the meantime, he and I grew closer and closer.

A couple weeks later he was over at our house studying. Mom was out and had said she wouldn't be back until the late evening so we had the place to ourselves. We helped ourselves to food out of the refrigerator, studied for about an hour and then shoved the books aside and began talking.

"Em, do you like me?" Will asked me suddenly.

"Huh?" I stared at him. I did, but I hadn't had the guts to say so. He was gorgeous; russet coloured skin, chiselled face, glossy black hair hanging past his shoulders, deep brown eyes...

"'Cause I like you. And I was hoping you might want to go on a date with me."

"Sure," I said and then thought I'd sounded as if I didn't care one way or the other. "I mean, yeah, I'd love to," I added and gave him a wide grin.

He smiled at me and kept on staring back into my eyes for a minute; then suddenly he leaned in to kiss me. His lips were firm and warm as they caressed mine and when his tongue slid tentatively into my mouth I began to melt. Somehow we were lying on the couch clinging to each other, his body pressing me down into the cushions, his erection straining against his pants and grinding against mine, his hands in my hair and my arms around his waist as we kissed breathlessly. I moaned into his mouth and the sound clearly encouraged him further. He slid one hand down my body, tucking it under my butt, his knee pushing my thighs apart so he could rest between them. I knew I was going to come in my pants - there was no way of stopping it – and as he broke the kiss and pressed his face into my neck instead, his deep groan and the shuddering of his body indicated he had done the same. We lay holding onto each other, panting for breath for a few moments and then his lips returned to mine and kissed gently once again.

"_Embry! What the hell are you doing?"_

I imagined Mom's scream was loud enough to be heard throughout the reservation and Will catapulted off of me and off the couch, red-faced and clearly not knowing what to do with himself. I sat up, mortified, hanging my head so I didn't have to look at either of them.

"Will Lucien, get out of here this minute!" Mom shrieked. "Wait till I tell your parents!"

"Don't, please, Ms Call, my Dad'll probably thrash me," Will said in a small voice.

"It'll be nothing to what I'll do to you if you don't _get out of this house and keep your dirty hands off of my boy!"_ shouted Mom, her eyes popping, face as red as Will's.

"Mom!" I protested. "You don't understand. Please..."

Will fled, slamming the door behind him and I had to sit and listen to Mom telling me I was lucky she had turned up when she did and saved me from the disgusting little pervert she had allowed me to be friends with. For several minutes I couldn't get a word in and when she finally paused for breath, I said what I had been longing to say for years and hadn't felt able to.

"Mom, I'm gay."

"Don't be ridiculous, Embry! You don't know what you're saying. That boy's filled your head with his sick ideas. All you need is to meet a nice girl..."

"It's nothing to do with Will!" I interrupted. "I knew before he even moved here. Long before."

She wouldn't listen to me. Everything I said she argued with, telling me I was too young to know anything; I'd been influenced by Will or someone else at school or the awful programmes they showed on television these days which weren't fit to be broadcast. When she eventually did accept that what I was saying was true – or at least in my own mind – she was filled with renewed horror at what her parents would think if they found out; what everybody on the reservation would think. She had no intention of telling the Luciens when she had thought about it a little, not wanting to give them something to worry about and spoil their time in Neah Bay. Instead, she would take me away so that I didn't bring any more shame on the family than I had already done by being born.

It was that last comment which hurt me more than anything else. In my fifteen years she had never once indicated that she regretted having me and she had comforted me when I returned home from school countless times as a child, crying because I'd been called a bastard or whatever other insult the kids had thought up. But now it seemed that even she didn't want me; the only person that did would probably be too scared to come near me again and in any case, I was about to be taken away from him.

Mom kept me away from school for the next two weeks, making up stories to her parents and the school that I was sick with a severe bout of influenza and couldn't get out of bed. In the meantime she made rapid arrangements for a job transfer, the insurance office she worked in having other branches around the country with one in a small town named Forks having just had a member of staff quit without notice. Forks was close to the La Push reservation where the Quileute tribe lived and Mom rented a house there, deciding even another tribe would be better than trying to settle amongst whites.

Just three weeks after she caught me kissing Will, we were packed into the car, a U-Haul trailer hooked up to the tow bar, driving out of Neah Bay for the last time to find a new life in La Push where I was under strict instruction not to do anything to cause Mom further embarrassment in front of a people who may be a little unwilling to accept us to begin with.


	2. Chapter 2

CHAPTER TWO

**Embry's POV**

Mom started work less than a week after our arrival in La Push. She would leave the house ten minutes before eight every morning and drive into Forks where her new office was, leaving me to my own devices for the day. I had the whole summer to do as I pleased before school started in August and as soon as I found the beach, I knew it was going to become my favourite place, at least on the days when the persistent rain let up for any length of time.

It was a couple weeks before I actually met anyone else. I saw other kids on the beach at a distance and purposefully avoided coming into contact with them, convinced that somehow they would be able to tell by looking at me that I was Makah and gay and thus hate me on sight. My lack of friends, with the exception of Will, had made me shy and awkward and I wouldn't have known how to start a conversation if it came to it. In addition I missed Will horribly and was hurt by the fact that I had sent him several emails since Mom threw him out of the house, all of which had gone unanswered. I suppose I couldn't really blame him.

I was sitting in the middle of a jumble of rocks exposed by the low tide, watching a crab moving around in a small pool, when the arrival of the first people I was to meet almost made me leap out of my skin.

"Hey, you're new here," a voice said. "Have you just moved to the reservation?"

I got to my feet and turned around hastily. Standing on the sand a few feet away were two boys around my own age, one with short curly hair and the other with hair very like Will's – long and glossy and tied back at the sides with an elastic band. I struggled not to lick my lips. He was beautiful and even made Will look like an ugly duckling in comparison.

"Um...yeah, me and my Mom moved here a couple weeks back," I said nervously, climbing down off the rocks to stand in front of them.

"Are you Quileute?" the curly-haired one asked.

"No. Makah. We came from the Neah Bay reservation." Shit, here we go. He'll tell me to drop dead or go back where I came from.

"Oh, ok." He shrugged. "I'm Quil. Stupid name, right? Goes back generations in my family; I guess they didn't have much imagination. Quil Ateara V. My Dad died when I was young so I live with my Mom and Gramps, Quil Ateara III."

"Quil, shut up," the good-looking one grinned. "I'm Jacob," he added and stuck his hand out to shake mine.

I put my hand into his and almost shivered at the firm, warm grip.

"My name's Embry," I said.

He let go of my hand and Quil reached out to shake it too.

"So, how old are you, Embry?" Jacob asked.

"Fifteen."

"So are we, you'll most likely be in our classes at school. You are going to the high school on the reservation, right?"

"Yeah, Mom already enrolled me," I told him.

"So it's just you and your Mom?" asked Quil. "Funny, you should fit right in. Half the kids here come from one-parent families. Jake just has his Dad, his Mom died when he was nine. He has sisters, but one eloped and the other's away at college; where the hell did Rachel go, Jake? Pullman, was it? And Jared, this other kid in our classes, only has his Mom, his Dad ran off with a..."

"Quil, _shut up_, Jesus!" grinned Jake, flashing perfect white teeth. "Sorry about him, once he opens his mouth an endless stream of crap just keeps pouring out of it, when it can get past his size twelves."

I laughed softly. "I don't mind; to be honest I'm glad to find somebody to talk to. You're the first people I've met since I got here."

"Must be tough leaving your school and friends behind," Jacob said.

"I didn't really have any friends. Only one, but...anyway..." Hell, don't tell them about Will, what's wrong with you? I thought to myself. They'll probably run a mile if they find out. And don't keep looking at Jake.

"So where's your Dad?" Quil asked then.

"_Quil!"_ hissed Jake.

"I never met him," I said, feeling that at least this was one confession they weren't going to care about. "I don't even know who he is."

"Oh, well if he didn't stick around I guess you're better off without him," shrugged Quil and then glanced at his wristwatch. "Shit, Gramps will kill me, I was supposed to be home a half hour ago. See you around, Embry." He turned abruptly and began to charge off up the beach.

"Nice meeting you," Jacob said. "Catch up with you soon."

"Sure. Great. I'll look forward to it. Nice to meet you too," I babbled and stood there staring as he ran after Quil.

I watched until they had disappeared from view, smiling to myself. Two potential friends already and they didn't care about me being either Makah or illegitimate. That was a good start; so long as they didn't find out I was gay. Or maybe even that wouldn't matter. Maybe Jake was gay too. Maybe one day he might want to kiss me. I immediately began to imagine scenarios where we were lying on a couch together like I had with Will, only it was Jake kissing and touching me, rubbing himself against me. I started to get hard and shoved my hands into my pockets, my face flaming, glancing anxiously around me to make sure no one else was in sight. Great, Embry, I thought to myself. Make two new friends, get the hots for one of them and wreck it all before school starts. Forget it; no way is he gay. And Mom will kill me.

I sighed heavily and much to my relief my erection quickly began to subside. I pulled my hands out of my pockets again and walked home, contenting myself with the fact that at least two of the population of La Push didn't mind spending time with me so I was no longer completely alone.

**Paul's POV**

Dad and I arrived in La Push on a Saturday afternoon. My first impression of it was a sprawling reservation made up of low single storey houses surrounded by large areas of grass without any apparent boundaries, dirt tracks leading from the roads up to their doors and the whole thing drowning under rain so heavy you could barely see through it.

My feet were up on the dash in Dad's truck, my arms folded and my face set in a scowl, which had been the case for most of the journey. Dad was foul-tempered and mostly uncommunicative, which he had been since Mom left and I had adopted the same mood, knowing he didn't want to talk to me and would probably open up a case of beer the minute we stepped into the new house.

I wasn't wrong. We left the things we had brought with us in the truck under the tarp rather than carry them in through the monsoon and have everything ruined before we made it to the front door. The rented house was furnished and we hadn't needed to bring a great deal of stuff. Both of us kicked off muddy boots and shed soaked jackets in the hallway, then Dad headed for the living room with his beer and I went to the room he told me was mine, closed the door, threw myself onto the bed and sulked. I wanted to go out and stamp around to clear my head, but no way was I going out again in that fucking rain; I'd be soaked to the skin in ten seconds.

"It can't rain all the time," I muttered, repeating a line from one of my favourite movies. It sure looked like it might though. The ground surrounding the house was a sea of mud and the storm didn't seem like it planned to end any time soon.

Dad called me out of my room some time later to eat pizza he had ordered in and then I went back to it and sprawled on the bed once again until at some point I fell asleep. When I opened my eyes hours later it was Sunday and when I looked up and out of the window, I could see blue sky. I sat up quickly. So it didn't rain all the time; thank God for small mercies.

I helped Dad unload the truck and then he told me to get out of his hair for the rest of the day, which was something I was only too glad to oblige with. There had to be something good about the reservation and I intended to find out what. At least I wasn't going to get called 'Redskin' or any other shit.

I shoved my feet back into my muddy boots and left the house. Dad's parting shot as I closed the door was, "Stay out of trouble! I don't want some guy's parents at my door on the first damned day!"

I didn't answer. It was warm and sunny and a strong breeze coming from the west and carrying the smell of the sea led me swiftly to the beach. I hurried down there and found it deserted – long stretches of sand, still wet from a rapidly ebbing tide, huge chunks of rock sitting here and there and a random jumble of boulders that seemed to have been piled up for the sole purpose of scrambling on them. I climbed up there and stood looking out to sea for a while, then jumped down and walked back along the sand for a mile or two. So far La Push didn't seem all that bad. At least it had a decent beach if nothing else. And no one in sight to piss me off and tempt my fists out of my pockets.

I turned to walk back the other way and immediately found I had spoken – or thought, rather – too soon. There was another kid heading up the beach in the same direction I had been going before I turned around, almost as if he were following me. I rapidly took in his thin frame dressed in jeans and a sweatshirt. He was of a similar height to me with black hair so long it almost reached his waist, brown eyes, a soft wide mouth which began to curve upwards slightly at the corners in a tentative smile.

What the hell is wrong with you? I thought to myself. Don't start with that shit. What you need to do is find yourself a hot local girl and it'll all go away. He's probably straight anyway. But he's staring, just like that Gene kid.

"What the fuck are you looking at?" I barked before I could stop myself. 'Stay out of trouble', Dad had said and here I was courting it at the first possible opportunity.

"Nothing. Sorry," he said, eyes widening. "I was just...sorry." He dropped his eyes away from my face and quickly skirted around me, then hurried away.

"Shit," I muttered aloud. "Try and start a fight with every damned kid here, why don't you?"

I began to walk back the way I had come, telling myself to calm down and at least try to be pleasant if I met anyone else. It was only about another twenty minutes before I did meet someone else – another boy of similar size and build to me, this one with short-cropped hair like mine and a face that looked full of mischief. He had a cellphone in his hand and appeared to be tapping out a text message, until he glanced up and spotted me heading towards him.

"Hey. New here, are you?" he asked.

"Yeah. Just moved here yesterday," I said.

"Welcome to La Push, I guess." He stopped walking and stuck his hand out towards me. "Jared Cameron."

After a brief hesitation, I shook it. "Paul Lahote."

"Are you Quileute?" he asked. "I think I heard mention of a Lahote family living here some years back."

"Yeah, it was probably my family. We lived here until I was four years old, then moved out to Tacoma. Dad and me just came back."

Jared nodded. "I guess you'll be going to high school here then? How old are you?"

"Fifteen."

"We'll probably be in the same classes. You want to hang out for a while?"

"Ok," I agreed.

I ended up spending maybe an hour with him before I managed to find something to annoy me. We just wandered back along the beach and then sat on the rocks chatting. He seemed like an ok kid and we had a few things in common – his parents were divorced and he lived with his Mom, he liked the same type of music, he was nuts about motorcycles and aimed to get one as soon as he was old enough, but there it seemed to end. He was full of fun and liked to play pranks, he enjoyed school and was a straight A student and he'd never had a fight in his life. But I wasn't going to pick one with him just for that.

It was only later when he asked if I had met anyone else yet that I ended any possible chance of friendship with him. Somehow that other kid I'd seen briefly had got into my head, just before Jared asked me if I had met anyone else.

"No," I grunted. We hadn't met anyway. I didn't even know his name. I could see his face though, with his big soft brown eyes and hair like silk all the way down his back. I ground my teeth together and my shoulders stiffened.

Jared apparently didn't notice and launched into a description of a bunch of people he knew who would be in the same classes as me at school. I didn't remember any of it, except for the fact that he mentioned some kid named Jake who was a mechanic and apparently God's gift to the population. He was hooked on an older woman who recently moved into Forks from Phoenix. God's gift? That was a hell of a weird thing to say. And somehow Jared's hand had landed on my shoulder while he was talking. What the hell? Were they all fucking gay here?

I jumped to my feet. "Take your fucking hand off of me!" I growled.

"Jesus, I was only being friendly, you should try it some time!" Jared exclaimed, looking up at me with a frown.

"There is such a thing as being too friendly," I retorted.

"There's such a thing as being too sensitive also," Jared retorted and then muttered, "Asshole," under his breath to finish with.

"Fuck off!" I responded. My fists clenched at my sides. In any other circumstances I would have taken a swing at him for that, but I could just imagine his mother turning up at our house later to complain to my Dad that her precious little Jared was sporting a black eye or missing some teeth thanks to me and I took several deep breaths and backed away instead.

"You know, you'll fit in around here a lot better if you lose the attitude," Jared said. "And grow a sense of humour. Man, you have a chip on your shoulder the size of a house."

Yes, too right I did. Moving to a place full of fags and comedians could do that, I thought, wondering if I was being a complete dick over it. He probably had a point; I did have a chip on my shoulder, mostly caused by my upbringing. I needed to back down, just for once, and stop looking for a fight everywhere.

"Yeah. Sorry," I said grudgingly, relaxing my hands. "I'll catch up with you some other time."

"Whatever." Jared shrugged, not bothering to get to his feet and I left him there and wandered off on my own again.

I didn't see him or the other kid again until school started. I did meet the guy called Jake that Jared had mentioned though. I took more care not to run into other people on the beach for a while, but one day I was down there, listening to my Ipod and daydreaming as I walked along until a football almost hit me in the face. I stopped dead and glowered in the direction it had come from. Two boys were there, smirking and laughing, one long-haired and the other with short curly hair. The latter elbowed the other now.

"Jake, you idiot, you'll knock someone out with that one of these days."

So that was Jake, was it? I stared harder at him. God's gift to La Push? Maybe he thought he was.

"Sorry, man," he said, grinning.

"You will be if you do that again." Yeah, there you go again, Paul, antagonise another one.

The smiles on both their faces vanished. "He said sorry," the curly-haired one said. "You don't even belong here; we've never seen you before. If you're going to come to our beach, it wouldn't hurt to..."

"Quil, shit! Will you stop?" Jake groaned. "Leave him alone."

Tempted as I was to continue the discussion, I left them to it and continued on my way, wondering how many more people I could upset before school started. Four down so far. But at least I had managed not to hit any of them.

I didn't venture outside the house much for the rest of the time until I had to go to school. The rain started again and continued persistently, day after day, and with Dad working long hours he didn't much care if I spent the whole time in my room watching television, playing my music loud enough to make the windows rattle or killing monsters on my Playstation. Finally on my first day, I set off in the usual school uniform consisting of black pants, white shirt and striped tie which I shoved into my pocket rather than put around my neck, and my books crammed into a large backpack. Dad gave me twenty bucks which was intended to buy my lunches for the entire week and then off he went to work and left me to get myself to school.

I presented myself at the secretary's office when I arrived and was instructed to put my tie on and given my timetable which showed my first class – Math, much to my displeasure – started in fifteen minutes. I hated Math with a vengeance. In fact I hated most classes except for sports. I hung around outside the building until the last possible minute before I went looking for Room 16 and by the time I got there, all of the other kids were seated and the teacher was writing something on the whiteboard on the wall at the front of the room. He turned away from it as I walked in and the whole class looked up at me.

"Mr...Lahote, I take it. You're late. Sit down quickly, there's a place over there with our other new addition to the class."

He pointed to a desk at the back of the room, half of which was occupied by the kid with all the hair – the first one I'd seen on the beach. Jake and Quil sat in front of him and Jared and some other boy were to the left. Superb. Most of the other students stared at me as I made my way to the desk and dropped into the seat and the boy next to me seemed to cringe away as far as he could get, eyeing me sideways with lowered lashes as if he expected me to bark at him again. I knew I should probably do something to fix that. He hadn't done a thing except smile at me.

"Hey," I said under my breath. "I'm Paul."

His eyes lifted slowly until they met mine – soft, chocolate brown, a touch fearful. "Embry," he whispered.

I risked a slight grin and then switched my eyes to the teacher as he began to address the class. Embry. Shit. I had a horrible feeling he was going to somehow cause trouble for me and by the end of that first class, I knew he was. He'd only looked at me about a hundred times in the last hour and my skin didn't know whether to crawl with revulsion or come out in goosebumps. The minute the bell rang to announce the morning break, I charged out of the class, almost knocking down two other boys who had been sitting closer to the front and were already at the door.

"Sorry," I grunted.

"No problem," one said and they followed me outside.

"You're the new guy," the second one stated. "Or one of them. You know, you drew the short straw winding up next to that Call kid. He's fucking Makah; him and his Mom turned up on the reservation a few weeks back."

"You're not another one of them, are you?" the other boy said.

"Hell no! I'm Quileute. I was born here, but my parents moved away for a few years," I said.

"Cool. Two of them's enough; wish they'd fuck off back to Neah Bay, they don't belong here," the first guy added.

I nodded in agreement, feeling a touch hypocritical that I was criticising Embry for being Makah when I'd spent years in Tacoma receiving the same treatment for being Native in general.

"He looks like a fucking fag anyhow. I'm Mark, by the way," the boy added.

"Stu," added the other.

"Paul Lahote," I said, offering my hand to each of them to shake. At last. Guys with an attitude that I could relate to. These two, I decided, would be my friends.


	3. Chapter 3

CHAPTER THREE

**Embry's POV**

Paul Lahote – that was his name. The boy I saw briefly on the beach who practically jumped down my throat just for smiling at him; not that it had really been a smile, more a hint of one. And now on my first day at school I was stuck with him sitting next to me in class because we were both new and everyone else was already paired up. I was slightly more encouraged by the fact that he introduced himself and gave a half-hearted kind of grin, but he still intimidated me, not least because once I looked at him closely, all thoughts of the beautiful Jacob went right out of my head.

Paul was no older than any of us, but you could already see growing muscles straining against the sleeves of his school shirt. He was broad-shouldered, narrow-hipped, with a square chin and straight brows above brown eyes so dark they were almost black. He wore his hair cut short, but it looked like it would have a slight wave to it if he grew it. His skin was russet, a touch darker than mine, smooth, unblemished and with a wrinkle between his brows which seemed to be a permanent fixture. I wondered if he were to smile – really smile – whether it would vanish. I noticed all this during Math when my eyes were repeatedly drawn to him about every ten seconds, my heart thumping and my mouth dry. Paul was hot – and he was mere inches away from me.

He didn't look at me after his brief introduction, except for a quick glance when my hair fell forwards over my shoulder and landed all over the desk and his text book. I swept it away quickly and did my best to concentrate on what the teacher was saying, but it was impossible. I couldn't stop looking at him and I grew more and more nervous. The back of my neck was hot and damp and I had to drag my hair off of it and pull it forward over my other shoulder. I watched Paul turn the page of his text book, his large strong-looking hand holding it open while he copied an equation. I imagined him lifting that hand up and touching my hair, running his fingers through it, maybe resting his arm around me, drawing me in closer to his side.

I was holding my breath and I let it out slowly and stared fiercely down at the Math book in front of me. Stop thinking about him; stop looking; the last thing he wants is a guy practically panting over him in class. I put as much effort as I could into solving the quadratic equations, knowing I didn't have a hope in hell of finishing them. I had always been lousy at Math, even without the distraction of Paul La-hotty sitting next to me, damnit.

Finally the bell rang and everyone began to put their things away and get up. Before I even had chance to close my books, Paul had snatched up his belongings and fled the room as if he couldn't wait to get away from me and I guessed that was most likely true. Shit, he probably realised I'd been gawking at him for practically the whole hour and was disgusted. I got up more slowly and headed for the door. He was right outside talking to two other boys and as I passed, I picked up a fragment of their conversation.

"...wish they'd fuck off back to Neah Bay, they don't belong here."

"He looks like a fucking fag anyhow..."

My stomach turned over and I went cold. They already hated me for being Makah and were making it abundantly clear that if they knew for sure I was gay they would have a second reason to resent me being in La Push. It hurt all the more because after only an hour in Paul's company, knowing nothing about him and having had no conversation except the exchange of names, I liked him way too much. I could never let him know that. I would have to go on hiding who I was and hoping nobody ever found out. Even if I did meet someone like me – like Will – I couldn't do anything about it because Mom would wreck it for me and hate me. All I wanted to do now was run away.

I flew down the corridor and burst through the door at the end into the fresh air. I ran across the yard towards what looked like it must be the sports block and then rounded the end of the building, searching for somewhere I could hide from everybody for the next fifteen minutes until the bell announced the second class of the morning.

I found a set of steps there leading up to a closed emergency exit door and guessed no one was likely to open it unless the place went up in flames or something. I sat down on the steps and wrapped my arms around my knees, shivering. I hated school already. Apart from the fact I had to leave Will behind, I had been glad to leave Neah Bay and my initial few weeks in La Push had made me think it would be a great place to live, especially when I had met Jake and Quil. But already I was feeling just like I had at my old school except that my outcast status was for a different reason so far.

"Embry!"

I jerked my head up, not having expected anyone to find me, or even to know my name. I found myself looking up at Jake and Quil and when I saw both of them were smiling, I almost sagged with relief.

"Hey, guys," I said.

They sat down on the steps with me, one each side.

"What are you doing?" Quil asked. "You ran off like the devil was after you or something. Are you ok?"

"Yeah, I guess," I said.

"You don't look ok. You looked pretty miserable a minute ago," he added.

"I suppose it'll just take me a while to...um...settle in," I said.

"Stick with us, you'll be fine," Jake told me at once. "Let's have a look at your timetable; you've probably got most of the same classes as us."

I pulled the card out of my bag and Quil snatched it. "Hm...yeah...yeah..." he murmured as he scanned down it. "Only thing we're not all in together is Chemistry, which you got next, but there's only two sessions of that a week. Jared Cameron's in that class, he's not a bad guy. Have you met him yet?"

"No." I shook my head.

"He was on the next desk to your right in Math. Or the left, depending on whether you're looking from the front or the back. Right from when you're sitting at it. I wouldn't call him a friend of ours, but he's cool. Bit clever. I don't mean that in a nasty way, he just is. I've never known him get less than a grade A in anything. I've had him help me with my homework a few times. What about you, Embry? How are your grades?" Quil babbled without pausing even once to take a breath. When I glanced to my other side at Jake I could see he was rolling his eyes.

"I don't know, a mix of B's and C's," I said, turning back to Quil.

"Same as us really. Gramps says I need to pull my thumb out of my butt and study harder or I'll end up bussing tables in the All-You-Can-Eat diner in Forks."

"Quil, if you studied even half as much as you talk, you'd have grades like Jared," grinned Jake.

I laughed. I was liking both of them more and more.

"Do you know what you're going to do when you finish school?" Quil went on.

"Not really, I haven't thought about it. What about you?"

"As little as possible," said Quil with a giggle. "Jake wants to run his own garage. I mean, who aspires to be a grease monkey?"

"I can speak for myself, you know, and I don't aspire to be a grease monkey, I'm that already. I'll be the boss some day and you needn't come knocking on my door when you've no money to pay for anything because you're doing as little as possible to earn it."

"He's tight too," Quil said to me, glancing at his wristwatch now. "Couple more minutes. What have we got next? Biology?"

"Yeah, we're all in the science block, so we'll meet you outside for lunch, Embry," Jake said.

"Thanks, guys," I smiled. At least I had these two, who didn't care I was Makah and clearly wanted to be my friends. I had hoped that meeting on the beach hadn't been a one-off and right now they seemed like the nicest guys in the world. But they still didn't know I liked Paul..._boys_. At least there was one good thing about it – I had stopped thinking of Jake in that way pretty quickly, which would have made things difficult to hang out with them if it had continued.

"What do you think of that other new kid?" Quil asked then. "Lahote, is it?"

"Um...I don't know anything about him...he only said hello," I said, lowering my head so that my hair fell around my face. I could feel my cheeks reddening suddenly. I wished they hadn't mentioned him because now I couldn't get the image of him out of my head again.

"We ran into him on the beach once a few weeks back," Jake said. "Seems like a real jerk and he was obviously looking for a fight. Those two guys he was talking to after class, Mark and Stu..."

"Dickheads," interrupted Quil. "And bullies. They're racist, sexist and whatever other 'ist' you can think of, so if he pals up with them I would steer clear."

"I plan to," I said as we all got up to make our way towards the science block. Unfortunately steering clear of Paul didn't prove to be that easy.

**Paul's POV**

I spent the morning break learning about everyone's shortcomings from Mark and Stu. They seemed to hate everybody for one reason or another, in particular Jake and Quil, the pair who had almost hit me in the head with their football a few weeks back. Most of the kids in school looked up to Jake apparently, which reaffirmed Jared's comment that he was God's gift. Mark and Stu didn't like him because he was popular, had girls hanging off of his every word, even though he showed no interest in them in return due to his obsession with a white girl almost three years older and everybody – parents, teachers and kids alike – loved him. Quil was just a dick – the school clown, always fooling around, shouting his mouth off constantly whether he had anything important to say or not, trying to entertain everybody like he thought it was his mission in life. Another comedian like Jared, I thought. Listening to the two reel off an endless list of reasons to hate Jake and Quil, I found myself disliking them intensely, without even knowing them.

"Oh, hey, look, they already met the Makah fag," Stu said suddenly, elbowing me and pointing towards the sports block where Jake and Quil could be seen walking one either side of Embry. All three were smiling like they had suddenly become bosom buddies in the space of fifteen minutes.

"There's a surprise," added Mark. "Trust Jake to pick up any waif and stray that nobody wants, fucking goody two-shoes Black."

"You know, that story about the tramp from Phoenix is probably to cover up the fact he's a fag too," Stu smirked. "I mean, he didn't waste any time jumping on Embry, look at them. Sick."

I frowned as I noticed Jake's arm wrap itself around Embry's shoulders in a companionable hug and my guts clenched in a ridiculous pang of...something. I refused to put the word 'jealousy' to it.

"You'll probably end up having to experiment with him, Paul," Mark snorted suddenly.

"What...!" I stared at him in horror.

"In Chemistry if you have to work in pairs, which is usually the case. Since both of you are new."

"Yeah...sure..." I scowled and chewed my lip as Stu exploded into raucous laughter.

"Bet it'll be more of a Biology experiment Embry's got in mind!" he spluttered. "Be sure to keep your back to the wall."

I cringed and said nothing and much to my relief the bell rang a minute later and I headed for the Chemistry lab. Mark and Stu left me and headed for Biology. This time I was almost first in the room and the teacher directed me to a bench in a corner which was so far unoccupied. Predictably Embry joined me a couple minutes later and I sighed heavily. I was probably going to end up stuck with him in every class. At least he didn't appear to be looking at me this time; in fact he seemed to be going to great efforts to keep his head turned away towards the teacher instead, until the details of what we would be doing during the class had been explained and we were forced to communicate with each other and work.

We were supposed to be studying the principles of a candle and conducting various experiments as had been done about a hundred and fifty years before by some English scientist named Faraday. I couldn't see the point really. Who the hell cared what the properties of candle wax were and how it burned? It wasn't like anyone used them any more and it seemed pretty basic stuff for our age group.

"Mr Call, do something with your hair please, we don't want any accidents!" the teacher exclaimed just before everyone began to light their candles.

Embry flushed scarlet and I couldn't help grinning as he gathered his hair up in one hand and dragged an elastic band he was wearing around his wrist over it. A long strand escaped his efforts and an alarming vision of myself reaching out to tuck it behind his ear flashed into my mind. I was furious with myself, but I couldn't seem to help it. His hair looked like silk. I'd never seen a guy with hair like that and I wondered if it felt as good as it looked.

I reached out to pick up the long-handled lighter to light the candle just as he did and our hands bumped together. He snatched his back immediately.

"Sorry," he said and proceeded to chew his lip nervously.

He looked almost scared of me and I frowned as I picked up the lighter, flicked the switch on the handle and touched the flame to the candle wick. Had someone said something to him? Or did something happen between us leaving the Math class and now? I shouldn't have cared what he thought, but I did and I didn't want him to sit there crapping himself for an hour over it. It wasn't as if Mark and Stu were in the same class to see if I talked to him. I didn't question my reasons for thinking that.

"I don't bite, you know," I said quietly.

He turned to look at me, anxious eyes meeting mine, although he didn't say anything. He just continued nibbling on his lip as if he meant to tear the skin off of it.

"Look, we have to work together. If I did something to upset you..." I went on.

"It doesn't matter," Embry said. "I heard you and your friends talking, that's all. I guess I expected I wouldn't really be welcome here. Neah Bay where I come from was the same; they didn't like people from other tribes..."

"That's more the other guys' view than mine," I said at once, suddenly thankful that I hadn't actually contributed anything to that part of the conversation Mark and Stu had been having. "I lived in Tacoma the last ten or so years. Most of the kids in my school were white and they hated Natives."

"What did you do about it?" he asked.

"Beat the shit out of enough of them to make the rest back off," I grinned.

Embry's eyes widened. "Didn't you get in trouble for fighting?"

"All the time. I got expelled for..."

Shit. I got expelled for beating Gene after he looked at me wrong and I was hit by a sudden horrible feeling of guilt that I'd hurt the kid for liking me. What if Embry looked at me the same way? Would I do the same to him?

"I got expelled for hitting a kid not long before we left Tacoma," I finished, feeling thoroughly ashamed.

I had never analysed how I felt about it at the time. I hadn't known anything about Gene; had never spoken to him and only happened to have football training on the same day as him. I beat him half senseless because he stared at my butt; because Dad said that's what I should do if some fag looked at me or tried touching me or anything else.

"What did he do?" Embry asked.

"Huh?"

"The kid you hit. He must have done something."

"No," I said shortly, shaking away my thoughts. "He didn't do anything; I was a dick, that's all." Say something else, I thought. Change the subject, for God's sake. "Why did you leave Neah Bay?" I asked him.

"Um...I...um...I got in some trouble..." he stammered, dropping his eyes suddenly. "There was always trouble anyway, people looked down on us because Mom wasn't married when she had me; they were really old-fashioned about stuff like that."

I wondered how he had actually got in trouble. The rest of it sounded like he was covering up something else; he and his Mom wouldn't have suddenly made a run for it because he was illegitimate if they already put up with it for fifteen years.

"You said you got in trouble," I prompted. "You weren't fighting too, were you?" The question brought to mind my own attack on Gene again and I quickly wished I hadn't said it.

"Mr Lahote, do you think you could stop talking long enough to conduct the experiment and complete the analysis?"

The teacher's voice carried all the way to the back of the room where we were sitting and everybody else turned to stare. I scowled now and switched my eyes from Embry to the damned candle, my temper rising rapidly. I hated fucking school and I hated experiments. More than that, I hated me, for not being able to accept what I knew in my heart I was because my Dad's views had been rammed down my throat so often.

I could have liked Embry – I knew it without a doubt and I also knew that I hadn't imagined him looking at me the whole way through the Math class, looking at me the same way Gene had. He had things in common with me; hated for being here just because he was Makah when I had been hated in Tacoma for the same thing. He seemed like a nice kid, shy, a little nervous, but I liked talking to him and he had beautiful hair and eyes and a sweet face. But I was supposed to hate him because of Dad, because of my new friends and because thanks to my upbringing I couldn't stomach the idea of being with a guy, even if Dad and Mark and Stu were completely out of the equation.

"Paul?" Embry whispered, dragging me out of my thoughts again. "Are you ok?"

"Shut up, will you?" I snapped, reverting quickly to my usual self. "I don't want a detention or something on the first fucking day!"

Embry shrank back, snatched up his pen and began writing in his notebook and I did the same. We didn't speak for the remainder of the class and when the bell rang to announce the lunch break, once more I was almost first out of the door, wanting to put as much distance between myself and Embry as possible.


	4. Chapter 4

CHAPTER FOUR

**Paul's POV**

I met up with Mark and Stu outside the science block and spent the lunch break with them. We hung out in the canteen eating and then went out onto the sports field where Stu produced a pack of cigarettes and handed them around. I had smoked before a few times, but hadn't continued simply because I thought I had better things to spend my allowance on than something which was going to go up in smoke, literally, and leave nothing to show for it. I wasn't about to refuse a free smoke though and happily accepted one.

We sat there, keeping an eye out for the sports coaches and discussing our hatred of immigrants to the reservation, fags and Jacob Black while I quickly began to wonder if I made a mistake by deciding to call these two guys friends. They had nothing positive to say on any subject – except for girls, which they would happily talk about endlessly, boasting about the number they had made out with already. Both were looking forward to the end of semester party which was always held mid-December, after which they planned to lose their virginity with the first girls waiting in line for them. They assured me the line was long and desperate, although so far I hadn't seen any evidence of that.

"There'll be plenty to go around," Stu said. "We'll introduce you to some of them, unless you already met someone since you arrived?"

"No, I've hardly seen anybody," I said truthfully.

"So, what were the girls like in Tacoma?" asked Mark.

"White and therefore not keen on me," I grunted.

"Come down the beach with us on Saturday," Stu said at once. "We'll be playing football in the afternoon with a couple other guys. There's always girls watching. We can hook up with some of them after."

"Sure, ok," I agreed at once. Maybe that was just what I needed. I mean, who knew what they really wanted at fifteen anyway? I was probably just confused, I thought. Intrigued by the idea of the forbidden after listening to Dad shout about right and wrong for years. A hot girl would fix me. It wasn't the first time I had told myself that and I would go on telling myself the same thing until I stopped noticing Embry.

By the time the afternoon classes started, it seemed like some of the other kids had come to a sort of arrangement to keep Embry out of my way and I couldn't help wondering if he had said something about the Chemistry class. I guessed he couldn't really work me out, the way I'd started off at least slightly friendly and then jumped down his throat again. I almost wished the others hadn't interfered so I would still be sitting with him, but it was for the best that they had. My stupid thoughts really didn't need any encouragement. So when I walked into History there was no single empty desk for the two new kids - Embry was already seated by Quil and I got Jacob and in Geography I sat by Jared. I wasn't sure what my reception would be with him after my previous meeting with him on the beach, which as usual I had managed to spoil at the end, but he seemed willing to give me a second shot and we talked a little until the teacher told us to get to work.

The rest of the week passed in pretty much the same way. I only had Embry next to me in Math and Chemistry and we were cool, but civil with each other on the rare occasions we were required to say anything. I didn't get the feeling he was looking at me any more and I refused to let myself look at him, even when my eyes felt like they were being dragged by force in his direction. It didn't escape my notice that he was receiving a fair amount of unpleasantness from other kids for being Makah and I swallowed the temptation to ask if he was ok. He had his adoring little buddies, Jake and Quil, to look after him anyway. The sooner Saturday came the better and hopefully I would meet someone who would make me forget about him once and for all.

The last class of the day on Friday typically was Math – start and end the week with the one I hated most. The teacher had given us a ton of homework – fucking quadratic equations again, which I would never get my head around if I lived to be ninety. I was beginning to think that getting to know Jared better was probably a good plan, or I was going to fail every damned class and give Dad another reason to be in a foul mood. Embry didn't seem any better at the equations than I was – at least he seemed to only have half a page in his book written on by the time the class ended, not that I really paid attention. I noticed the teacher held him back after class for something, but by then I was out of the door and on the way home. I stopped outside for a few minutes to smoke a cigarette with Mark and Stu and then they left me to it and set off home.

I walked slowly, wanting to delay my arrival as long as I could. Dad finished work early on Fridays and I knew he would either order me to do a pile of chores or make me get on with my homework the minute I got in. So I dragged my feet, staring at the ground and thinking about the planned football game on the beach the next day. Embry shot past me a minute later, apparently aiming to catch up with Jake and Quil who were long gone and I watched him race up the street with his hair flying loose around him. He disappeared around a corner and I continued on my way.

Maybe five minutes later I passed a cluster of smallish trees and as I glanced over that way, I stopped quickly at the sight of some kind of scuffle going on amongst them. I immediately recognised Mark – he was a good head taller than most other kids in our year. He and another guy, presumably Stu, appeared to be taking turns throwing punches at a third kid who was mostly obscured by the pair of them. Then as Mark stepped back for a moment I realised it was Embry.

I wondered if the pair of them had been planning to get him after school. They hadn't said anything about it, but I had mentioned once earlier in the week that I couldn't afford to get in trouble right away after I'd already been expelled from my last school. Maybe they thought they'd just leave me out of it for that reason. I didn't know what to do now and I stood watching from a distance, my heart hammering, half of me inclined to charge over there and tell them to leave Embry the fuck alone and the other half telling me not to be such an idiot; it wasn't my business and would only end with me being labelled a fag as well. Yes, it was cowardly and I was sick with myself for not doing anything about it. Embry didn't stand a chance against those two jerks and I just walked away and left them to get on with it, telling myself he would be fine and that a few bruises never hurt anyone.

**Embry's POV**

By the end of that first week I had come to the conclusion that I was going to hate every minute of school until I escaped it in three years' time and right then, three years seemed like a life sentence. The only thing that made it bearable was the friendship of Jake and Quil, with whom I became inseparable in just days. The only time they weren't around was Friday night, when I really could have done with their help. The two thugs they had warned me about – Mark and Stu – lay in wait for me on my way home and spent several minutes using me as a punchbag. I wasn't completely useless, but they were both bigger and stronger and after making a few attempts to fight back, I gave up and just waited for them to get tired of it. The worst thing was that I caught sight of Paul standing in the distance watching before he took off and I knew at that moment that his occasional half hearted attempts at friendliness didn't mean a thing – he hated me too, which made me just feel stupid for liking him so much.

I didn't tell anyone what happened. The bruises weren't on my face and I knew Mom would probably think I'd got myself in trouble by doing something to annoy someone. She was working hard, trying to make a new life for us and I didn't want her worrying about my stupid problems. I didn't tell Jake and Quil either when I saw them over the weekend and when Quil punched me playfully in the shoulder and I flinched away in pain, I said I'd fallen over one of the boxes in the house that we still hadn't unpacked and crashed into one of the kitchen cupboards.

The next few weeks passed in a similar way and although I was still picked on and tormented by some of the kids at school, Mark and Stu mostly left me alone. The only people I really talked to were my two friends and therefore I didn't notice if anyone else was paying me attention – any glances that came my way I assumed to be from people who continued to resent my presence on the reservation.

"Did you have a girlfriend back in Neah Bay?" Jake asked me one Saturday morning as we walked along the beach. Quil was doing chores for his Gramps that morning and was to catch up with us when he was done.

"What? No," I said. It was something we hadn't discussed before, although I had guessed it was only a matter of time before the subject came up. "Like I said before, I didn't really have friends of any sort – I was just the bastard kid no one wanted to know."

"Well, somebody wants to meet you," Jake said with a grin. "This girl, Jessie – she's in our English class sitting in the front row. Hair about here..." he touched his shoulder. "...usually in a tail. She's pretty nice, her elder sister used to be friends with my twin sisters when they lived here. What about it?"

"Um..." What the hell was I going to say to that? I stopped walking and shuffled my feet in the sand, stuffing my hands into my pockets.

"It's ok if you're shy with girls, she'd understand. As far as I know she's never had a boyfriend either," Jake went on. "I could introduce you if you like; she'll probably be down here this afternoon."

"I...um...I don't think that's a good idea right now," I said. "Mom wants me to concentrate on school."

"So you could study together or something," he grinned. "It's about time you met some other people and it'd help Quil out too. He likes Jessie's friend, but she hasn't noticed him so far."

"Jake, I don't want to, ok?" I sighed. The way things were going I would end up telling him why and then I'd be back to square one – the outcast with no friends.

"Why not?" he asked, looking slightly puzzled. Then he grinned. "Don't you like girls, or something?"

Fuck. Now what? Joke? Make something up? Pretend to be insulted? While I was trying to think of something to reply with, my whole face suffused with colour. I could feel my skin almost burning and him staring at me the way he was made me want the ground to open up and swallow me.

"Embry?" he prompted.

"No," I whispered. "I'm gay." I turned away from him and began to walk off up the beach, not sure which direction I was heading in, wondering if he was going to follow me and say something cruel or simply abandon me. I could feel tears filling my eyes and I blinked rapidly, trying not to let them spill over.

"Hey, where are you going? Embry, wait up!" Jake grabbed my arm and pulled me to a stop. "Surely you don't think I care, do you? You're my friend, I don't give a damn whether you like girls, or guys, or dogs even. I'm just sorry you didn't think you could tell me. Or Quil. We're not Mark and Stu or any of those other jerks, you know. You can just be yourself with us."

I embarrassed myself further at that point by bursting into tears. His reaction was so different from what I had thought it would be and it was such an enormous relief to tell someone that I wept to let it all out and to my further surprise, Jake gave me a firm one-armed hug and told me again that it was ok and he didn't think any differently of me than he had before. I was just beginning to get myself together when Quil turned up and I glanced anxiously at Jake. From what he had said I doubted Quil would care either, but I was unsure.

"What's going on?" Quil asked as he reached us. "Hell, Embry, what's up? Are you ok?"

"Shall I tell him?" Jake offered.

"No," I sniffed and took a deep breath. "I'm gay," I said again.

"Well, that's nothing to cry about, it's not like someone died or anything," Quil said with a grin and reached out to give my shoulder a squeeze. "But damn, that's my chance of hanging out with Marie gone out the window. We were going to try and fix you up with her friend, Embry." He grinned wider. "So how long have you known?"

Even with them being so relaxed about the whole thing, I didn't feel comfortable really talking about it, but Quil didn't let up with the questions, despite several growls and elbows from Jake, so I did talk. I told them about the birds and the bees talk from Gramps and the extremely brief friendship with Will and Mom's horrified reaction when she found out, which had been the main reason for her moving us away from Neah Bay. Both were shocked at Mom's lack of support for me and pointed out that on the whole, most people wouldn't care at all if I met somebody I wanted to be with.

"It's only the minority here that are that narrow-minded," Jake said. "Guys like Mark and Stu and Paul, for instance."

I inwardly cringed at the mention of them. I could only imagine the kind of beating I would get from the original two if the one I had already was anything to go by. As for Paul – I really couldn't figure him out. Occasionally he almost seemed like he wanted to be my friend, but then within minutes he could be barking at me or ignoring me. I just hoped the three of them never found out about me, if I had to stay single for the next three years until I finished school.

It was actually only another couple of weeks before it did all come out and it was my own fault for not being able to hold my tongue. Mark and Stu had cornered me after school before any of us had left the school grounds. We had been playing football and I left the sports block after I quickly showered and changed and headed around the side of the building. The pair of them caught up with me and began their routine of tormenting me verbally, calling me 'fag' and various other insults until they had manoeuvred me into a corner formed by the end of the sports block meeting the indoor swimming pool building and there I was stuck, knowing I was about to be punched at the very least.

"Why can't you damned well pick on someone else for once?" I said, thinking that anything I said wasn't going to make the situation worse or better.

"Because we like picking on you, you're such a fucking easy target," Stu replied. "I mean, you haven't got a single thing going for you, have you?"

"Yeah, no one wants you here; you don't belong on our reservation and nobody likes fags. Don't try and deny it; everyone knows you're a fag. Who wears their hair like that unless they're a girl? Or Jacob fucking Black?" Mark sneered.

"Why don't you admit it?" added Stu. "Or are you just going to stand there and cry?"

"What the hell does it matter if I am, huh?" I shouted suddenly. "It's none of your fucking business! You might as well have another reason to hate me besides me being from another tribe!" I shut my mouth quickly, horrified that I had just blurted that out. Great, now I was really in for some trouble. Stupid jerk, Embry.

Mark and Stu were staring at me with a mixture of surprise and horror on their faces as if they really hadn't expected what they had been saying to be true. I would have laughed if I wasn't struggling not to cry. They let me off much lighter than I expected. One hefty punch in the stomach from Mark and then the pair backed off, muttering that I was a sick excuse for a human being and so on, but then suddenly they were gone and I was left leaning against the wall in the corner, doubled over as I tried to suck air into my lungs, my stomach heaving as if I was about to throw up. I was shaking and a couple of tears escaped before I got control of myself, brushed them away and straightened up, to find Paul standing in front of me. Shit.

"I heard what you said."

He heard me admit I was gay. Well, that was just the icing on the cake and I waited for him to add insult to his friends' injury and ruin the fantasies I still sometimes had in my head about him.

"Thing is, I already knew," he added.

"What? How?" I frowned. I must have given the game away gawking at him or something. I knew it.

"I don't know, just a feeling." He leaned against the wall next to me, a couple feet away, staring out at the school field.

"You don't share your friends' views?" I ventured.

"Um...no, I don't, Embry, ok? I'm not sure what to think right now."

I risked a glance sideways at him. He was looking down at his feet now, his arms folded across his chest. I couldn't think of anything else to say to him and I looked away again and chewed my lip.

"I'm sorry you got hurt," he said then, much to my amazement. "You know I said I got expelled from my old school for hitting some boy?"

"Yes, I remember. You said he didn't do anything to earn it."

"Yeah...except look at me in the changing rooms. I guess he was gay. I didn't know anything about him and I didn't ask."

I shivered. He had said he didn't share his friends' views, but here he was admitting to have done exactly the same thing that they had done to me.

"I felt like a real shit over it ever since," he added. "He didn't deserve that. My Dad rammed his homophobic ideas down my throat since I was eleven or twelve and I guess it made me believe it was normal to be like that. I had this gang of friends with the same thoughts. It was no excuse, I still had a mind of my own, but I suppose I thought it was what I should do."

"I guess I can understand you hating me then, if you were brought up that way," I said.

"I don't hate you," he said at once and pushed himself away from the wall, turning to look at me. "I just have a chip on my shoulder the size of a house. Jared told me that the first time I met him before school started."

I stared back at him, knowing my eyebrows were rising towards my hairline. Everything that came out of his mouth was more of a surprise. It reminded me of the first day when we talked in the Chemistry class before he suddenly barked at me for no reason. I wondered if this was the real Paul and the rest was just a character he stepped into to please his Dad and the two thugs he called friends. I chanced a small smile in response to his last statement and he grinned back quickly.

"Embry! Hey!"

I turned my head in the direction of Jake and Quil who had just emerged from the swimming pool building.

"I'll leave you to it." Paul took a step away immediately.

"Ok," I said, wishing they hadn't appeared at that moment. I wanted to keep talking to him, but he was already walking away, ignoring Jake and Quil as he passed them and hurrying towards the school gate.

"Are you ok?" Jake asked. "He wasn't having a go at you, was he?"

"No." I shook my head. "It's fine. But I think the whole school will probably know about me tomorrow."

"What do you mean?"

"You never told _him_ you're gay!" Quil exclaimed.

"No, he says he already knew. But I kind of blurted it out earlier; Mark and Stu cornered me when I came out." I smirked at the expression and both of them looked surprised.

"I wouldn't take any notice of those two assholes," said Quil. "I doubt anyone else will either. So what did Paul say?"

"Nothing." I knew what he had said to me had only been for my ears.

Quil shrugged and I picked up my backpack which I had dropped on the ground and began to walk home with them, wondering what the next day was going to bring. I couldn't help a small amount of hope that Paul might be nicer to me in the future, although it was probably only wishful thinking.


	5. Chapter 5

CHAPTER FIVE

**Embry's POV**

The next day was Friday and I was ridiculously excited when I set off for school, somehow convinced that the small conversation with Paul which revealed he seemed to have no problem with me being gay meant he would drop Mark and Stu like hot coals and want to be my friend instead. Of course that wasn't the case and I only saw him at a distance until Math at the end of the day. He was already seated at the desk when I got there and he didn't look up as I walked to my side of it and sat down next to him.

"You alright?" he grunted after a moment.

"Yes, thanks."

I sat there hopefully for the rest of the hour, unable to concentrate on work, waiting for him to say something else or look at me and smile, but he didn't and after class he joined Mark and Stu at the door and disappeared. My heart sank into my boots and I walked home with Jake and Quil.

After the weekend I felt even worse which was stupid really. Paul might not have attacked me for being gay, but it didn't mean he was himself; far from it. But when I saw him in the lunch break walking around holding hands with some girl I was upset. In my most unrealistic daydreams I had imagined him holding my hand, kissing me, telling anybody who bothered us to go to hell and now I had to watch him with some stupid giggling girl. One of his friends had a girl as well; they must have spent the weekend getting together. I did my best to ignore them, but it wasn't easy when they could be seen in the canteen together every day or walking around the school grounds holding onto each other and whispering into each other's ears.

Weeks later Paul was still with that girl and apparently planning to take her to the end of semester party. I had long since given up my dreams of him being with me and made more effort to focus on my schoolwork instead, but I was repeatedly distracted by him deciding to be more friendly towards me, particularly in Chemistry where you could get away with talking to a certain extent. He never mentioned the girl, much to my relief, but the fact that he was pleasant to me hurt more than if he had been cruel or just ignored me because I knew it didn't really mean anything.

At least my bullying had stopped by then – Mark and Stu seemed to have rapidly grown sick of that right after they found out I was gay. I would have expected it only to increase, but they just avoided me altogether and I spent all my time with Jake and Quil, listening to Jake constantly pining for the girl in Forks whose name was Bella. She was dating a guy called Edward, but it didn't stop Jake longing for her and I knew exactly how he felt. In the meantime, much to Quil's delight, when he finally plucked up the courage to talk to Marie, the girl he liked, she agreed to go to the movies with him and subsequently the party.

The last thing I wanted to do was go to the damned party, but it was expected and I grudgingly agreed to go at least for an hour. I was sure half my class mates were waiting for gay boy Embry to turn up with some guy, which I did actually, but it was nothing for them to gossip about. I went with Jake, since his persistent obsession with Bella refused to let him date another girl, or even ask one to the party, despite the fact that I knew at least five or six girls were praying every night that he would ask one of them. Neither of us really dressed up – a lot of the guys went the whole way and hired suits and bow ties and other stupid accessories, but Jake and me succumbed to smart pants, shirts and ties and that was it; even then the ties dangled untied around our necks after the first five minutes.

It was the typical sort of school party, similar I supposed to a prom, everyone dressed up, girls in long dresses with makeup shovelled on an inch thick, drowning in perfume enough to choke you and jangling with an assortment of jewellery. There was a live band on, crowds of kids dancing and attacking the table of buffet food as if they hadn't eaten for a week, washing it all down with alcohol-free punch. Within fifteen minutes I had had enough, especially when Quil came to join us with a face like a wet weekend to tell us that Marie was dancing with some other guy and had decided she didn't want to date him any more.

My eyes kept searching the crowd for Paul and I spotted him a few times, wearing a dark suit and an open shirt with no tie. He looked hotter than ever, but the effect was spoiled by the stupid girl in her long pink frilly dress hanging onto his arm. She seemed to be whispering in his ear and giggling constantly, while he scowled as if he would rather be somewhere else. So he didn't seem to be enjoying it one bit; maybe he wasn't a party guy either.

Quil's miserable mood didn't help the way I was feeling and I eventually excused myself and left him with Jake, deciding I would go outside for some fresh air and then escape home. The party was being held in the two adjoining sports halls as they had the most space, and I walked out of the one used for basketball into the corridor and went to the changing rooms to take a pee first. Then I headed outside, immediately relieved when the cool air hit my face and the sound of the music and voices faded as the door closed behind me. I wandered away from the sports block to the edge of the fields where there were several benches in the shelter of a few trees. I dropped onto one of them and sat there in the darkness, feeling sorry for myself as usual. Why did I have to go and fall for a straight guy? One who had thugs for friends and a girlfriend? Damnit, I was a jerk. I continued cursing myself for a little while, thinking I should probably just go home rather than sit there in the dark sulking, but just as I was making up my mind to do that I heard footsteps.

There wasn't much light where I was sitting and I couldn't make out who the figure was sauntering slowly towards where I sat, until he was only feet away.

"Embry, what are you doing out here?"

"Um...getting some fresh air. Parties aren't really my thing," I said. My heart began to thump wildly and much to my surprise, Paul swung one leg over the bench and sat down astride it facing me, a couple of feet away. He had a bottle in his hand and he raised it now and took a gulp of whatever was inside it.

"Not mine either," he grunted and then offered me the bottle.

"What is it?" I asked.

"Jack."

I took it and tried a tentative sip. The whiskey burned its way down my throat and formed a pleasant warm ball in my stomach. I took a larger mouthful and then passed it back.

"Where did you get it?"

"My Dad's cabinet. He'll never miss it."

He took another long drink and coughed slightly. I sat in silence staring down at my hands, not having a clue what to say to him. Here he was, for some unknown reason wanting my company and I had nothing to say. There were maybe five other benches he could have sat on, but he had to come and sit with me and I was totally tongue-tied. I licked my lips nervously and he reached out to hand me the bottle again. Dutch courage, I thought, and took a couple of large gulps.

"Aren't you going back in there?" I asked him.

"No."

"Won't your...um...friend be looking for you?"

"I doubt it, I just fucked her off, stupid little tramp," he growled.

"Oh. Sorry," I said.

"Don't be, it was never going to work. She's not my type. I guess I only dated her to get those two jerks off my back."

My eyebrows rose and my heart thumped harder.

"You know what tonight was supposed to be? Me, Mark and Stu all getting our cherries popped, so to speak. Sally was well up for it too."

"So why did you break up with her?" I asked. "Apart from her not being your type. I mean, you'd get laid, right?" I said, suddenly finding I could talk to him after all.

"Yeah, but when I said she's not my type, I meant..."

He stopped, pulled the bottle out of my hand and took several mouthfuls. I waited for him to continue, but he didn't speak again. He put the bottle on the ground, got up slightly and then sat back down much closer. I almost stopped breathing as his hand dropped onto my leg and pulled my knees sideways until they bumped the inside of his thigh and I was virtually facing him. He left his hand there, feeling like it was burning a hole in my pants and lifted the other to touch my hair. As he began to lean in closer I wondered if that whiskey had gone to my head so much I was hallucinating. Was Paul really going to kiss me?

**Paul's POV**

I was mad as hell that night; I hated fucking parties and I wasn't far off hating Sally with her constant stupid giggling and fixing her hair and touching up her lip gloss or whatever the hell it was called.

I met her during one of those football games on the beach with Mark and Stu and a couple of older guys they knew. There were probably five girls watching and when we stopped playing and sat down, Sally and this friend of hers, Letty, started talking to me and Stu and I ended up stuck with her. I initially thought she was pretty and funny and I asked her to the movies because it was expected and because I thought it would give me something else to think about; something other than Embry fucking Call.

I'd always guessed he was gay, since that first Math lesson when he couldn't take his eyes off of me. Then when I talked to him about it, he seemed so damned grateful that I hadn't punched him or something, staring at me with those huge brown eyes and making me spill out how I really felt about what I did to Gene that I ended up being more friendly to him in the classes where we sat together. I told myself I would have helped him out if Mark and Stu or any other fucker decided to bully him after his secret was out, but whether I actually would or not was another matter. It never came to it, however - Mark and Stu spent a day talking about how they always knew he was one of those sick cocksuckers and then they dropped it and focused their attention on girls.

So I fell into dating Sally and kept on with it because I was sure it was only a matter of time before I got into her. She was nice enough and I guess you would say she had a good figure and pretty hair, but the longer I spent with her the more irritated and annoyed with myself I got. I was leading her on to try and make myself feel better, or look good in front of my buddies and it only made me feel like a real shit. And it alternately angered and scared me that when I had my eyes shut while I kissed her and touched her hair, Embry kept jumping into my mind, except that I doubted his hair felt like hers, all lacquered up and kind of brittle.

Then Stu suggested we make a pact to screw the two girls after the party; Mark had started dating Trisha by then too and joined in and I just knew it wasn't going to happen. I knew what was wrong with me, inside, but damned if I was going to admit it. But what I did do was piss Sally off at the party, purposefully provoking a fight about some shit I couldn't even remember five minutes later and she broke up with me and stormed off home in tears. I felt guilty for a moment and then heaved a sigh of relief that I didn't have to go through with what we planned for that night. The fact that I had brought the whiskey with me and hid it in the changing rooms proved to be a Godsend and I walked out, grabbed it and headed outside. I would sit out there alone and get wasted and forget about her...and him.

But there was no chance of that. There he was sitting alone looking as miserable as fucking sin and much as I tried to make myself turn around and walk the other way, I couldn't do it. Whatever the hell was wrong with him, I had the most overpowering urge to make it better.

I wasn't sure if he was too surprised by my appearance to say anything or just tongue-tied, but it took him a few gulps of the Jack to say much of anything; then he asked me about Sally and I couldn't wait to tell him we broke up. I wondered if he wanted to hear that. Did he like me? Was he miserable because I was with her and not him? Or was I nothing to do with it and he was just fed up of people picking on him and leaving him out of everything? Even his two buddies were too busy in a huddle after the stupid one, Quil, got dumped by his girl on the dancefloor.

I put the bottle down and turned him towards me before I could even think about what I might do next. Maybe instinct was the best way to go with this. I would probably regret it later, but right now who the hell cared? I lifted my other hand up and brushed his hair away from his face, then slid my fingers into it. I was right, it did feel like silk; soft, shiny, fresh and natural.

My hand reached the back of his neck and I leaned closer. I could feel him trembling and he sucked his breath in and closed his eyes a second before my lips met his. I realised I was holding my breath too and my heart was banging so loudly it almost deafened me. His lips were warm and soft and I caressed them with mine almost tentatively. What if I was wrong and he didn't like me? Or he had done and the amount of shit I'd given him had changed his mind?

That brief worry vanished in a second when his lips parted and moved gently against mine and after a minute I deepened it, my tongue searching for his, tasting, exploring. I took my hand off his leg and slid my arm around him instead, shivering as his hand came to rest on my chest in the 'V' of my half open shirt, his palm cool on my hot skin. My heart was banging wildly as if trying to burst out of my chest into his hand and my blood began rushing to my cock; something that never happened when I kissed Sally. I wanted to feel more of him against me, to touch him, to have him touch me and I broke the kiss and got up. I grasped his wrist, pulled him up too and led him around the other side of one of the large trees above us. He leaned back against the trunk and I stepped closer. I was nervous as hell, but excitement overtook it and I pressed myself against him as I resumed kissing him. He slid his arms up around my neck, whimpering into my mouth and I felt his erection nudging mine. I was so hard I ached and I couldn't wait to touch him; for him to touch me.

I broke the kiss, gasping for breath and brushed his hair aside so I could nibble his neck instead, my teeth grazing the skin beneath his ear. He shivered and removed one arm from my neck, sliding his hand inside my shirt and stroking my chest. I reached down, pulled the front of his shirt out of his pants and slid his zipper down. It was the first time I had touched anyone other than myself and I almost hesitated...almost. But his cock slid out of the front of his shorts into my hand as if to encourage me and I found myself grinning as my fingers curled around it. He was as eager as I was, clutching at me and groaning as I began to jack him off, then quickly taking his hands off me and reaching down to unfasten my pants, fumbling in his eagerness. I laughed, panted and groaned all at the same time until suddenly his hand was on me and we were stroking each other and I couldn't do anything other than try to breathe. I knew I was going to disgrace myself by losing it in a couple of minutes, but even so Embry beat me to it and I found myself relieved I had tucked the stupid hankerchief into the top pocket of my suit jacket as I used it to clean us up.

Embry avoided looking at me and didn't seem to know what to say to me suddenly and in the absence of anything to say myself, I slid my arms around him again. It felt so good holding him; so right, like it was everything I'd ever wanted. His body seemed to fit against mine as if it was made to do that and I loved the feel of his beautiful hair, his soft mouth as I began kissing him again, his arms holding onto me. I don't know how long we stood kissing under the tree, but I completely lost track of time; all I knew was that I didn't want to let him go.

Eventually we made our way back to the bench and sat down. The party was still going on and no one else appeared to be outside. My arm rested around Embry's shoulders, hugging him against my side as we started talking again. I didn't really know what to say, but I asked him a question and he began to spill everything out as if he'd been holding it in and waiting for a prompt. He told me he'd always known he was gay, that he found a friend who felt the same and I immediately felt a prickle of jealousy, thinking they probably fell for each other and had a relationship, but he told me they had only one kiss. His Mom caught them and went crazy and within three weeks they had left Neah Bay. I was reluctant to say too much about myself, but I told him about my Dad's views, how I had adopted them too until I started to realise with horror that I liked boys and did everything I could to deny it to myself. I still wasn't sure how I felt, if I was honest. I wanted him - I couldn't very well pretend otherwise now and I dreaded the end of the night when we would have to part and go home to our respective homophobic parents - but I knew I was a long way from entering into a relationship or letting anyone else know about me and I had no idea how I was going to feel about all of this when I'd had time to think about it.

Before the party ended and people started leaving, we took off. I wanted to walk him home, but at the same time I didn't want to be seen walking him home, so we went early enough to avoid everyone else. We said goodbye a little distance away from his house in case his Mom was watching out for him and much as I wanted to right then, I didn't kiss him again. I told him I would see him Monday and set off home. Dad didn't even notice me come in - he was passed out in front of the television with several empty beer bottles on the table in front of him and I went quietly off to bed.

I didn't think I would sleep and I lay awake in the darkness for a while, my heart hammering with a mixture of excitement as I thought about Embry, and dread of turning up at school on Monday and finding out everyone knew what we did. What would I do if that happened? Did I want him enough for it not to matter? The more I thought about it, the less sure I was and when I finally fell into a fitful sleep, my last waking thought was that I had made a mistake.


	6. Chapter 6

CHAPTER SIX

**Paul's POV**

I avoided my friends all weekend except for exchanging a few text messages with Mark who was boasting about what happened after the party. He got what he wanted, but I didn't want to know. I pretended I was pissed because Sally walked off and I'd missed out, but really I had got what I wanted too, although in the cold sober light of day I was already wishing I hadn't done it. What the hell had I been thinking? What if Embry talked about what we did? He was hardly likely to do that, I reasoned, with his Mom having the same views as my Dad and half the school already disliking him, but it didn't stop me worrying about it and the worst thing was that Monday mornings involved Math and Chemistry so I was going to have to sit next to him for two hours, convinced everybody else in the class would guess.

So on Monday morning I argued with myself as to whether to ditch school and spend the day at the beach or simply suck it up, eventually deciding on the latter. Despite my worries about everything, I still couldn't wait to see Embry. He was already there when I got there and it looked like he had walked in without his friends and was waiting for me. My stomach was already full of butterflies and my heart hammering when I saw him hanging around chewing his lip, looking as nervous as I felt. Damnit, what now? I was so fucking confused; I had no idea what to do or what to say to him, if anything. I was sure that if I even went over and said hello to him the whole school would immediately start talking about me. My steps slowed down and I avoided looking at him as I walked in the gate, then suddenly he was heading towards me.

"Hey, Paul," he said shyly.

"Hey."

I met his eyes and he smiled and it seemed like everything was written all over his face. My eyes darted away again and I caught sight of Mark and Stu approaching from a distance. Great, the first thing they would see of me after I split with Sally was me talking to Embry. I looked back at him and realised he had edged closer to me; much too close and I stepped back quickly.

"What the hell are you doing?" I hissed. Shit, I knew I should have ditched school. Why the fuck had I gone and kissed him and touched him like that? The thought of it mortified me suddenly and I was sure I was going red. By the time the bell rang I was going to be the biggest piece of gossip the school had seen in a long time.

Embry took a step back now too. He looked crushed.

"I...I...what happened on Friday...it...it seemed like it meant something," he stammered.

"Nothing happened!" I snapped, fear making me wish for the hundredth time that it hadn't. "We fucking drank too much and talked a load of bullshit. Leave me alone."

His face fell even further and in a second he turned and walked away and I felt like a total shit. What the fuck was wrong with me? I _liked_ him and I just kicked him in the teeth because I was worried about what people would think. Jesus, Paul, grow a backbone.

"Hey!" called out Stu as the pair drew nearer and I turned to wait for them.

"What the hell are you doing talking to him?" added Mark as they reached me.

"Um...nothing...telling him to leave me alone," I said truthfully.

"After you now you're free again, is he?" snorted Stu. "Someone needs to teach that fag a lesson."

"It's sorted, just leave it," I said.

I walked up to the school buildings with them, in two minds again about ditching, but it was too late now and I couldn't think of a good enough excuse to give to them. I would just have to suffer through Math and Chemistry, which really served me right.

However, I sat alone through the two classes. Embry ditched and I didn't see him again for the rest of the day. I felt sick and miserable, wondering where he was, guessing he walked out because he was hurt and he didn't want to face me. I didn't stop thinking about it all day, to the extent that I finished up with a detention after school for repeatedly not paying attention to one of the teachers and failing to hand in my homework, which had been forgotten over the weekend. So after school I stayed another hour doing the homework and glancing repeatedly at my watch, knowing Dad would go mad at me for getting in trouble and still unable to forget about Embry. I was going to put that right if it killed me, I told myself. Fuck Mark and Stu; fuck Dad; fuck everybody. If he would even give me the time of day sufficient to apologise, I would do it. I was a jerk; in my heart I knew what I wanted and I let everybody else influence me into doing something I didn't want to do in the beginning.

I had a long wait and by the end of the week I was sick with worry, fighting with a temper I couldn't seem to control and managing to earn two more detentions for cursing and arguing with the teachers in class. Embry was conspicuous in his absence from school and several teachers asked Jake and Quil where he was, since they hadn't received word from his mother. Jake said he was sick as far as he knew, but that was all. Somehow I had thought Embry would have told them what happened, but apparently not because Jake and Quil didn't behave any differently than usual. I would have expected them to at least say something if they knew.

In addition, Jared was mysteriously absent from school all week and no one seemed to have a clue about him either, although the teachers didn't ask so presumably his mother had explained his absence to the school. I heard several kids in class asking about him, but no one knew anything and I guessed he must be sick. He wasn't the type to miss school simply because he felt like it.

It was Saturday before I saw Embry. With it being the last week of school before the Christmas holidays I had thought I may not even see him until mid-January and the idea of that horrified me, so when I saw him I was immediately filled with relief.

I was down on the beach in the afternoon, having made excuses to Mark and Stu not to join in with the football game and then waited until I knew it would be over and gone there on my own. A couple of people were still around as dusk began to fall, but mostly it was deserted. I could see Embry in the distance walking slowly along the sand. He was a pretty long way off, but I knew it was him – no one else I knew had hair like that; the wind was whipping it around his head and he had his hands shoved into his pockets, his head down, looking cold and fed up. I stood by some of the rock formations watching, knowing I would go and try to talk to him, but trying to figure out what exactly I would say. 'Sorry' simply wouldn't cut it and he would probably just tell me to drop dead.

I still had no idea what I would say when I finally began to walk after him, but I guessed I would come up with something when I caught up to him. He was walking away from me now and I hurried, hoping I would make it before he left the beach. However, some other guys reached him before I did. I noticed three figures coming down one of the paths that led off the reservation and as they reached the sand, they intercepted Embry. They were too far away still for me to hear any conversation, but all four stopped and seemed to be talking. Then suddenly one of the guys grabbed Embry and another of them punched him. Shit!

I didn't know who the guys were, but they were all bigger than him and I began to run towards them. In a few seconds I launched myself into the scuffle, immediately recognising the three from the year above us in school. I wasn't really thinking about what I was doing. The evil temper I had been in all week seemed to take over and I lashed out in all directions with fists and feet, somehow managing to block their attempts to hit me back at the same time. I almost felt as if I were outside of my body watching myself fight and my blood boiled as I went on and on. None of them were paying any attention to Embry now and he had backed away out of reach; I could see him from the corner of my eye standing there watching the fight. It wasn't long before I burst a nose and the victim staggered away, spluttering and groaning, leaving me with two to deal with.

One of them got in a lucky strike, punching me in the guts and sucking the breath out of me and while I coughed and gasped the other one hit me in the kidneys. Pain knife through me and for a moment my legs weakened, but I summoned up more strength from somewhere and threw both fists out again, catching one guy in the mouth and the other in the side of the head. The more I continued and the more I thought about what they were doing to Embry and what I had also done to him, the more furious I got and I guessed I must have looked pretty out of control. My knuckles were torn and bleeding now and I was hot, almost as if I was burning up with fever. In just another minute the two guys gave it up and walked backwards away from me, telling me I was a crazy fucker.

I stood there panting, sweating, tempted to throw myself at them again despite the fact that they conceded and were leaving. My rage was completely out of proportion to what actually happened, but still I simmered and I didn't get it. All I could figure out was that I'd been tense and upset all week, sick with myself for hurting Embry and now I had caught someone else hurting him, I wanted to kill them and that thought in itself was pretty extreme, even for me. As the three guys made their way off the beach again I breathed deep, trying to calm myself down as I turned to look at Embry. Finally I could talk to him.

**Embry's POV**

I spent virtually all of the last week in my room. I had convinced myself that after the party when Paul kissed me and touched me and told me he liked guys that he would want to be with me. All that weekend I had been filled with excitement as I thought about seeing him again on Monday, but I suppose I shouldn't have been surprised by the way he spoke to me. I had been so keen to see him I'd gone to school early and waited and then I guess I made it much too obvious I liked him, especially with his friends not far away. Even so, I was shocked by the way he spoke to me. It was obvious he regretted it and I was crushed. I went home and I stayed there all day. Mom left for work before I went to school and she got home long after me, so she had no way of knowing whether I went or not. The school called our landline telephone a couple times - I checked the caller ID - but I knew she hadn't given them her cellphone number so they weren't able to reach her. When the letter arrived on Thursday I simply tore it up.

Jake and Quil both sent me text messages asking where I was and what was wrong with me and I told them I was sick, then simply ignored them. Jake even called me on Tuesday night, but I didn't want to talk to him. I felt sick and hurt and lost and I couldn't bring myself to go to school and face Paul. I only ran into him on the beach on Saturday because I didn't want to mope around all day and have Mom asking questions, so I went out.

Typically for me, it wasn't long before three jerks from school jumped on me and I was pretty surprised when Paul came to my rescue; but I was completely shocked by the violence in him. Even three boys who were all bigger than him were no match for him and he punched and kicked, making noses and lips bleed, knocking them down, winding them. Even when two of them managed to hit him back it seemed to only drive him into a greater fury. It scared the shit out of me to see him behave like that. I knew he'd gotten into fights, but this was something else. He looked like he was ready to kill those guys. It made me think twice about the way I felt. I had spent the whole week feeling sick and crushed after the way he treated me on Monday, but perhaps it was just as well. What if he had wanted me and we started seeing each other? What if we had a disagreement? Would he beat me like that? Lose control so completely? I had probably had a lucky escape after all and I decided to pull myself together and get on with things again. It was almost Christmas and what was I doing? Moping around as if the world was about to end.

So when the three bruised and bleeding guys left the beach and Paul spoke to me, I stayed cool, much as part of me still wanted to smile at him in the hopes that he had come to my rescue because he did like me.

"Are you ok?" he asked now.

"Yeah. You went crazy."

"I was mad. They were going to hurt you."

"What do you care?" I said bitterly and then cursed myself for letting him see I was unhappy.

"I'm sorry, Embry," he told me. "I'm sorry about everything."

"I know you're sorry you kissed me." Now I just sounded sulky and I bit my lip.

"That's the only thing I'm not sorry about," he blurted out. "I'm a jerk; I'm sorry about Monday."

"It doesn't matter." I stared at him in confusion. He wanted me after all then? But it was clear he was too worried about what everybody else thought to even say two words to me if anyone else was around. He said exactly that a moment later.

"It does matter. I guess I'm a coward; I thought everyone would be talking; I thought...I don't know, I'm just sorry."

He looked pretty miserable too, I thought; almost as miserable as I felt. My feet almost began to move me towards him, but I rooted them to the spot and tried to think of something to say. I was so close to accepting his apology and forgetting about Monday, but then what? More kissing maybe; would he want that? My heart fluttered at the thought. And then afterwards? More hurt. Even if he decided in his own head that he wanted to be with me, he would never let that happen. I had to walk away from him.

"Ok, well now you said it. I have to go," I said and made myself turn and start walking up the beach.

Nothing happened for maybe ten seconds and then suddenly he called out my name and I heard his feet coming after me. He grabbed my arm, halting me. His hand was hard like steel and I couldn't pull away.

"Leave me alone, Paul," I said. I tried again to pull my arm free, but I couldn't. He was so damned strong and I eyed him curiously. It was only a week since we had seen each other, but somehow he seemed to have grown in all directions; he was taller, his shoulders broader, his sweatshirt stretched tight across them and around his upper arms. I must be imagining it; no one grew that fast.

"Please talk to me," he begged, finally letting me go. "I like you, I..."

"You only like me enough to talk to me when no one's looking," I interrupted. "I wouldn't have said anything to anybody, you know; I don't want my Mom finding out any more than you want your Dad or your friends knowing."

"I'm sorry," he repeated.

Damnit, he was wearing me down. How many times could a person say sorry? I had to stop thinking about the kiss and how he was behaving now and remember how he hurt me and how violent he was.

"It's too late," I said firmly. "I don't need this. Don't you think I have enough problems being picked on for being a gay Makah? You don't know what you want and you were out of control just then. What if we had a fight? Would you beat the shit out of me like that?"

"No! Of course I wouldn't. I wouldn't hurt you," he protested.

"You already did." I turned and walked away from him again and this time he let me go. Stupidly I kept hoping he would run after me again, but this time he didn't.

I finally made the effort to go and see Jake and Quil on Sunday. They had sent me a number of messages again the last couple of days and I'd continued fobbing them off with comments about the food poisoning I had supposedly caught from eating some reheated chicken. I wasn't even sure if they believed me, but suddenly I wanted to spend some time with them and I went over to Jake's shed, guessing I would find them there.

Sure enough, Jake was working on the battered old Volkswagen Rabbit he had picked up from a junkyard and Quil was sitting on a stool, talking none stop as usual. Every other word seemed to be 'Marie' and he had clearly been suffering just as much as I had.

"Embry!" He jumped to his feet now as I appeared in the doorway and came to give me a hug. "Fuck, man, you look like hell!"

"Gee, thanks," I said. "I was sick."

"Are you sure that's all it was?" Quil asked. "We haven't seen you since the party, you just took off, we looked everywhere..."

You didn't, I thought, otherwise you'd have found me under a tree with Paul, kissing and with our dicks in each other's hands. I almost groaned and I knew I was turning red.

"Hey, you didn't meet anyone, did you?" Quil went on. "That would explain a few things! I bet you ditched school and spent the whole week getting it on!"

"Quil, shut up," Jake frowned. "What's wrong with you? Are you ok, Embry?"

"Yeah," I said, probably not very convincingly.

"You know, you can talk to us," Quil said. "I was just kidding, you know that, right? We were worried about you."

"Have you been getting bullied again?" Jake put down the wrench he was holding and came over to me. "If you really had food poisoning your Mom would have told the school. The teachers kept asking where you were. Did she even know you haven't been all week?"

"No, I ditched," I admitted.

"Why?" Quil asked at once. "What happened? We're your best friends, we might be able to help and you know we won't tell anybody. I know I have a fucking big mouth, but I can keep it shut when I need to."

I couldn't help grinning at this and I was so tempted to just tell them everything, but I worried I would look stupid, getting hooked on somebody who hurt me and would probably continue to do so if I had let his repeated apologies break me down. In the end I decided just to give them a few vague hints and keep Paul out of it altogether.

"I met somebody," I said.

"What? Who? When? Does he go to our school? Do we know him? What happened?" babbled Quil, eyes wide.

"Quil..." sighed Jake.

"Look, I'm not telling you any detail. I feel really stupid about it. It was nothing; it was just a kiss and then he made it pretty obvious he made a mistake, that's all."

"Shit!" Quil exclaimed. "What an asshole! Who is he, anyway?"

"I'm not saying any more," I told him firmly. "So please, stop asking."

"You really like him, though, right? You look miserable, Embry."

"I'm fine," I said determinedly. I would be. There was almost a month before school started again and by then I would have forgotten about Paul. By the time I had to sit next to him in class again, it wouldn't bother me. I just had to keep out of his way until then.


	7. Chapter 7

CHAPTER SEVEN

**Embry's POV**

I spent most of my time over the holidays with Jake and Quil and sometimes Bella too. Creepy Edward had dumped her and left town and she was completely devastated. We didn't see her very often at first, but her visits gradually began to increase in frequency and she seemed to latch onto Jake like he was a lifeline keeping her going. She monopolised him and it was obvious to Quil and me that his crush on her was rapidly turning into something more; something that she was never going to return when all she ever talked about was Edward.

At the risk of pissing Jake off, one day when he went back to the house to fetch some food leaving the rest of us in the shed, Quil and I spoke to her. Actually, she started it.

"Do you two always hang around here with Jacob?"

"Usually," Quil said. "We're his best friends. We've always hung out together. Is that a problem?"

"No, I just...he's my friend too, you know...I would like to spend some time with just him."

"Well, until he tells us to fuck off, we're staying put!" I snapped. "He's falling for you; can't you see that? He thinks he has a chance with you when you get over whining about that jerk, Edward. We're staying to pick up the pieces when you throw it back in his face."

"Jesus, Embry!" Quil gasped, looking at me in astonishment.

Bella said nothing, but her eyes filled with tears and her lower lip trembled. Quil went over to her and even though I knew he agreed with me, I also had the idea he liked her a little bit himself and he gave her shoulder a squeeze now and told her to ignore me.

I had no idea where that rush of temper had come from, but it vanished again quickly. I suppose Bella and Jake's situation brought to mind how I felt about Paul and how he had kicked me in the teeth at school two days after he kissed me. She was leading him on, letting him fawn over her and hang onto her every word when she didn't give two hoots about him. If Edward appeared and clicked his fingers she would be off like a shot and everybody knew it, but Jake was sure she was starting to have feelings for him.

"I'm sorry, alright?" I grunted, not meaning it. Suddenly I did want to get out of there; Quil and me hanging around wasn't going to change a thing. Jake was still going to spend the rest of the day gazing at her with love in his eyes while she pretended she didn't see it.

"I'm out of here," I added now and turned towards the door, just as Jake returned with some snacks.

"Are you going, Embry?" he asked in surprise.

"Yeah. I've had enough. See you later."

I stepped past him and began to head slowly for the beach. It was only a couple minutes before Quil caught me up, a sandwich in one hand and a bag of chips in the other.

"What the fuck is wrong with you?" he mumbled around a bite of sandwich.

"Nothing."

"Bullshit, Embry, you never bite people's heads off like that. Did something happen?"

"No, nothing happened. Nothing ever fucking happens around here."

My temper was rising again and I breathed deep and swallowed it. 'What the fuck is wrong with you' was a fair enough question, I thought. I had no idea what was wrong with me. I felt like I wanted to hit someone and that was completely new to me. I hated violence with a passion, probably because I'd been on the receiving end of it so often, but suddenly I was dying to run into one of those stupid jerks Paul spent his time with.

"Embry, you know I'm going to keep hounding you until you spit it out," Quil said, cramming a handful of chips into his mouth.

"There's nothing to tell, really," I said. "I'm just in a bad mood and there's no reason; I just woke up like this."

"Ok, well I guess I can understand that. You still want to hang out, or should I take off?"

"No, stay, I'm alright," I told him. "I'm going down to the beach for a while."

"Sure. You want some of this?" He offered me the half-eaten sandwich and I grimaced.

"No, thanks, Quil, you eat it."

"Your loss," he grinned.

We reached the sand a few minutes later, joining the beach at the end where the rocks were. It was cold and windy and the sky was full of angry looking grey clouds that threatened rain – the weather seemed in tune with my mood. I couldn't seem to shake it off, as much as I tried to lighten up. Usually Quil's constant babble made me laugh, but not today.

The beach appeared deserted at first, but then I caught a movement out of the corner of my eye and turned my head towards the jumble of boulders. We weren't far away and I immediately recognised Paul and Jared and I stopped walking in surprise. Paul and _Jared?_ They were wearing jeans and sleeveless t-shirts, apparently unconcerned about the temperature and were scrambling around on the rocks. As I watched Jared turned and gave Paul a shove, unbalancing him for a second before he shifted his position, grabbed Jared in a headlock and pretended to hit him. I could hear them both laughing and my stomach flipped over. What the hell?

"Jeez, I'm not so sure about Jared's choice of friends," Quil said at that moment. "What the hell's he doing with Paul?"

"I don't know," I said in a small voice, continuing to watch them mock fighting, grappling with each other and then jumping off the rocks and beginning to race up the beach. They looked close, friendly – maybe too friendly. Was Jared gay too, then? Were they together? Why was Paul fooling around on the beach with him where anybody could see them? Why hadn't he wanted to do that with me?

I continued my inner monologue until Quil suddenly grabbed my arm and turned me towards him.

"Embry?"

"What?"

"You zoned out there for a minute."

"Yeah." I felt sick. I couldn't stop myself thinking about what they might do next; maybe find somewhere they could be alone and start kissing...

"What's the matter with you?" Quil prompted.

"Nothing," I choked. Damnit, don't cry, I told myself.

"Hell, Embry, something is. You've been weird for weeks, why don't you talk to us? Well, me, since Jake's hooked on Little Miss Miserable."

"I thought you liked her," I said in an effort to change the subject.

"I don't _mind_ her, but I hate what she's doing to Jake. Talk to me."

"You'll think I'm stupid," I blurted out.

"I already think that, whatever you say won't make any difference," he grinned, punching me in the arm. "Sorry. Just talk already. Even if I can't do anything, least you'll feel better getting it off your chest. Is it about a guy? 'Cause I told you I don't care."

"Yeah, it's a guy," I admitted, realising that if I didn't talk to someone I was just going to torment myself endlessly and maybe he was right; maybe I would feel better. I supposed I could just not say who.

"Who?" he asked at once.

"I'm not saying."

"I'm not going to tell anyone, not even Jake if you don't want," Quil prompted.

"You know I said I had a sort of a...'thing'...?"

"A 'thing', yeah, you made out with someone and he changed his mind."

"Yeah, well...um...he apologised and I told him to fuck off and now he's...with somebody else." I turned and stared after Paul and Jared; I couldn't help myself.

"And you wish you hadn't told him to fuck off?"

"I don't know. Maybe." They were turning around and heading back towards where we were, still laughing by the look of it.

"What are you looking at?" Quil said.

"Um...nothing." I felt my face heating up and I knew I was giving myself away. I wished I'd never said anything, but it was too late.

"It's Paul, isn't it?"

"What do you mean?"

"You like Paul. Holy shit, I never knew he was gay!" exclaimed Quil. "The way he hangs around with those two homophobic jerks..."

"Keep your voice down!" I hissed.

"They're not going to hear me from over there."

"They might!"

"Alright, sorry," he said quietly. "So let me get this right; you and Paul had a 'thing', he shit on you like the asshole he is, said sorry and you told him to go fuck himself. You did the right thing, he's a jerk, you should keep telling yourself that. But who's he with now?"

"Well..." I glanced over at them again and much to my surprised, Quil chuckled.

"Jared and Paul? No way, Jared's not gay, he's got a girlfriend. This girl, Kim. She's been after him for about a year and he was never interested, then all of a sudden a few weeks back he changed his mind. He was actually off school sick the same week you were and right after that I saw him with Kim, holding hands, smooching, looking like he fell in love overnight. I'm surprised she's not with him now to be honest, they're practically joined at the hip."

"Oh!"

"Why he's suddenly best buddies with Paul, I can't figure out," Quil went on. "Jared thinks he's a complete moron, or at least he used to. Weird."

"Yeah." The knots in my stomach began to loosen and I felt enormously, stupidly relieved; stupidly because I knew if he were to come over and talk to me right then, I still would have run away so whether he was with someone of not really made no difference.

**Paul's POV**

I didn't blame Embry one bit for telling me to leave him the hell alone. I knew I'd hurt him without him actually saying it as well, but the worst thing was that he looked like he was scared of me. I lost it so badly with those three guys, even shocking myself, that I wasn't really surprised he didn't want me near him. There were so many things I'd done wrong I didn't know if there would be any way to come back from it. I did as he said. I left him alone and it fucking killed me. I was furious with myself and with all of these emotions whirling through me, my temper didn't lessen at all so it was probably just as well I did keep away from him.

I got in another fight just four days later with some jerk that kicked a football into my legs on the beach. When it came flying at me I half expected to find it had come from either Jake or Quil, but it was two guys I had seen once or twice but didn't know. I launched myself at the one nearest me without saying a word and the other coward fled, leaving his buddy at my mercy. I didn't even notice I had an audience until I was suddenly hauled off of my victim by hands of steel. The beaten boy scrambled to his feet and staggered away and I shrugged off the hands gripping my arms and turned to face...Jared Cameron.

"What the fuck are you doing? Mind your own business!" I snarled at him, wondering how he came to be so strong. He was wearing a tight t-shirt and his arms and shoulders bulged.

"It is my business. We're more alike than you think and I want to help you."

"_You_ want to help _me?"_ I sneered. "How do you propose doing that? Assuming anything's wrong with me."

"Let me guess...out of control temper for no reason; rapid muscle growth, voracious appetite? Maybe a raised temperature? Unusually acute sense of smell and hearing?"

My rage evaporated, driven away by surprise. The temper had been the worst thing, but I realised all of the other things he mentioned were a factor too.

"How do you know that?" I asked.

"I've been through it. Walk with me." He turned away and I fell into step with him without argument, which was unusual for me and I stayed silent and listened as he talked.

He began talking about the history of the Quileute tribe and the legend of the shape-shifters, something Dad had already told me about in the form of a fairy story when I was a young kid. I remembered most of it, but I'd always thought it was just something some tribal leader made up to entertain the kids with perhaps. For about a minute I listened to him spouting bullshit, restraining myself with difficulty from scoffing and walking away, but somehow I just didn't do it. If anyone had told me I would be walking along the beach listening avidly to anything Jared had to say, I would have fallen on my ass laughing, but by the time I got over the instinct to sneer at him, suddenly, somehow I knew what he was saying was true. Which meant...

"...you're going to become one and pretty soon from where I'm standing," Jared said.

"You're not joking, are you?"

"No. I've only really given you the basics. There's a lot more to it, so I want you to come and meet the Alpha; the pack leader, Sam Uley."

"Who's he?" I asked.

"You'll see. You're not doing anything else, are you?" he asked me.

"No."

"So let's go."

"How many are in this pack?" I asked him as we left the beach and began to walk through the reservation.

"Three so far. Sam, me - I'm his second in command - and you now. Or very soon you will be. There'll be others eventually."

"Who else?" I asked curiously.

"Jacob Black and Quil Ateara almost certainly. Jacob's grandfather was the last Alpha."

"Great," I grunted. "Those two jerks."

"They're nice guys, Paul, you've just been hanging out with jerks yourself for too long," Jared said mildly. "You know you're going to have to stay away from Mark and Stu from now on; you need a calming influence, not people who are going to wind you up more."

"So you're going to dictate who my friends are now? You better not tell me to hang out with Jake and Quil."

"No, I was going to suggest you spend time with me," he said.

I glanced at him as we walked. I'd never really had a problem with the guy and I supposed I could like him if I made an effort.

"It's just as well this is happening now, while we're all away from school," he went on. "You might have noticed me being off for a week at the end of the semester. At the start, it's pretty difficult to control when you shift, so Sam kept me out of school. Since you're prone to violence anyway, I'd say you'll probably take longer than a week."

"Aren't you worried I'd have a go at you?" I asked, surprising myself by grinning.

"No. You wouldn't win."

"Bullshit," I snorted.

Jared just smiled and strangely I found myself liking him right away. I guessed I could get used to hanging out with him and I had to admit that I didn't really find Mark and Stu's company riveting, since their only interests were screwing girls or insulting people.

I spent the rest of the afternoon and evening with Jared and Sam and Sam's girlfriend, Emily and by the end of it I was both anxious and excited about what would happen to me imminently. The most unbelievable part of the story had been that the shape-shifters' mission was to protect the tribe from vampires and that there were already a family of the bloodsuckers living in the area, one of which was the creep Jake's friend from Forks had been seeing. I had only seen Bella once and to me she looked like she was probably one of them, pale-skinned and dark-eyed like she was.

I had also learned about Imprinting, whereby fate selected a mate for you and as Jared walked home with me he told me of Sam's plight; the way he had been in love with Leah Clearwater - and in fact still was a little - but had Imprinted on Emily and would be stuck with those agonised feelings of loving and having hurt one and being practically part of the other. I hated the idea of that; being forced to be with someone whether you wanted to or not. It was like free will was being taken out of your hands and I vowed not to lock eyes with anyone after I first phased to reduce the risk of me ending up stuck with someone I didn't want...like Sally, for instance. I shuddered at the thought.

I spent the best part of the next week with Sam and Jared, or just Jared on his own and quickly found that I liked both of them a lot. I knew I wouldn't even give Mark and Stu the time of day when we got back to school. As it was, I had either ignored the few texts they had sent me, or made excuses as to why I wasn't hanging out with them.

I had managed to avoid trouble and stay calm in my new friends' company, but when Jared and I were fooling around on the beach one day and I saw Embry and Quil, my temperature began to rise and I struggled to stay calm and not make it obvious to Jared that I was upset. Embry kept looking at me and as we walked by them I picked up scraps of their conversation with my recently enhanced hearing. I didn't get all of it, but obviously Embry had told Quil something about me and Quil was telling him I was an asshole. My muscles tensed up and it was all I could do not to fly across the sand and attack Quil, but the result of that would be that I scared the shit out of Embry and only drove him further away from me. I forced myself to stop looking at them and concentrate on what Jared was saying instead, but my blood continued to boil and by the time I got home, I was spoiling for a fight.

As was often the case, Dad had been drinking and the minute I got in the door he started on me, wanting to know where I had been all day, who had I been with, where was Sally, who I had already told him twice before I was no longer seeing. He never remembered anything when he was drunk and now he seemed determined to have a fight with me. Whatever was going on with him he clearly wanted to take out on me and I walked away from him and went to my room. He carried on shouting from the other side of the door and my own rage only increased as I listened to the dumb drunken bully yelling. I opened the window, jumped out and headed for the beach. Let him stand there and shout at an empty room all night.

I felt weird - angry, hot, sick and my chest and my legs hurt as if I was coming down with something. When I reached the sand I stopped walking and leaned against one of the large rocks there, breathing deep and trying to calm myself down. I could hear every little sound - the waves lapping at the shore, a distant voice of someone up on the reservation, the cry of a bird - and I could smell the salt in the water, the wet sand, my own sweat. I knew what was happening; somehow I just hadn't expected it to be this soon even though Sam and Jared both said I was so close to phasing they wouldn't be surprised if it was within days. If I hadn't seen Embry I would have been alright, I told myself. But I had seen him and it was too late.

Heat welled up inside me like molten lava, sucking the breath out of me and I pushed myself away from the rock, dropping forward onto my hands and knees. The burning feeling inside rolled up through my chest and I tried to scream, but all that came out of my mouth was a low growl. I was changing and I couldn't stop it; my arms became the front legs of a wolf, ending with huge furry paws; my head and face altered shape and I found myself looking down a grey snout and suddenly I wasn't a boy crouching on all fours, but a huge animal with claws and teeth, thick fur and a tail and a boiling rage inside me that made me want to kill someone. I was furious, excited and scared all at the same time and a jumble of thoughts whirled around my head - fighting, tearing into one of those creepy bloodsuckers with claws and teeth, running with the pack.

Then I thought of Embry. Damnit, I wanted to see him so badly, but I could hardly go running to his house like this, not that he would even speak to me anyway. I ruined it all for myself in just a few thoughtless seconds because I worried what people would think. He could have been in my arms right now instead of spending all his time with Jake and Quil, hating me or fearing me. I let out a snarl of anger and frustration, at myself for having made him like that and then I began to run, aimlessly at first, unsure of where I should go, but in the end I knew I shouldn't be on my own and I began to make my way to Sam's. He had told me to go to him when this happened and somehow I knew he would be able to make me feel better.


	8. Chapter 8

CHAPTER EIGHT

**Paul's POV**

I stayed at Sam's place all night. He came out and phased the minute he heard me whimpering on the porch, having been reluctant to howl and have the whole of the reservation hear me. We ran together in the forest and talked, or rather thought, which I found incredibly unnerving at first. The minute you thought of something, the rest of the pack could hear you and I was glad at that moment that it was only Sam with me because I couldn't seem to rein it in and my mind was an embarrassing jumble of things that normally I would rather have died than speak about. In just ten minutes, Sam knew my Dad drank too much and had cheated on Mom, that I was bullied in Tacoma and got over it by turning into a thug who was expelled for beating someone because he looked at me wrong, Dad had brought me up hating myself because he was homophobic while I was gay and I had feelings for someone I hurt badly and I didn't know how to put it right. How I managed to keep myself from letting Embry's name out, I had no idea, but somehow I succeeded.

At the beginning, I got various sympathetic and encouraging thoughts from Sam, which started to calm me down as I rambled on, but eventually I realised I was getting nothing from him; it was as if he had closed his mind off and I began to wish I could do that. It was too late, however; just about everything had poured out because I couldn't keep my mind on more mundane things and now I was convinced he was horrified by what he had learned. I was willing to bet there had never been a gay wolf before and I wondered if he was trying to think of a way to remove me from the pack, whether it was my destiny or not. Embarrassment at my lack of control over my thoughts made my temper rise again and I directed it at Sam, wondering if it would even penetrate his mind while it was so shut off.

"_I should never have fucking said anything! You think I'm a fucking sick pervert too, don't you? Well, you know what? I don't give a shit, Sam! You don't mean a thing to me. I didn't ask to be part of this and I'll walk away from it! This is who I am, Mr fucking High and Mighty, so if you don't like it, I'm sorry, but I don't care! I don't care about anything!"_

"_Are you done?" _Sam's voice asked softly as I stood panting and showing my teeth.

"_Huh?"_

"_You said you don't care about anything, but it sounds to me like you care a lot; you're just confused and scared and hurt. Am I right?"_

"_Fuck off," _I responded half heartedly. Was he kidding? After everything I just said he still seemed like he wanted to help me.

"_Of course I want to help you, Paul, I'm your Alpha. That doesn't just mean you do as I say, but that I watch out for you too. I wasn't judging you, I was listening, considering what you must have gone through. I don't always let everything out, you'll learn to control your thoughts too in time. And for the record, your preferences are your own business, but whatever path you choose for yourself, I will support it and so will Jared and the others when they join us."_

"_Are you serious?"_

"_Of course."_

I was amazed and I knew it was going to take me a while to get used to. I'd always been made to feel I was wrong to the extent where I hated myself when I needn't have done and I hurt Embry when if I had support I wouldn't have. Suddenly someone was telling me I should be myself and that it didn't matter and it was difficult to believe.

I stayed the night at Sam and Emily's place. They had three guest rooms and told me that Jared had occupied one of them for a week immediately following his first shift and that he continued to use it at least half the time. The following morning Sam came home with me to find Dad hung over and drinking black coffee. I imagined a confrontation, but was surprised when Dad actually listened to Sam. Of course he knew the Quileute legends – he'd told me them himself – but I hadn't expected him to simply accept what Sam told him about me, or to agree that I should stay with Sam for the duration until I could control myself.

"Thanks," I said grudgingly.

He just nodded. "You better get some of your things."

So for the next ten days until school started I stayed with Sam and Emily and for most of that time Jared hung out with us. Every night we phased together and patrolled the borders between our land and that of the creepy Cullens' and each time I phased back afterwards I was exhausted and suffering a headache from determinedly thinking about everything other than Embry. The more I tried not to think about him, the more he tried to force himself into my mind and I found I was counting off the days until school restarted so that I could see him. I hadn't seen him once since that time on the beach when I was with Jared, even though I went down there repeatedly on my own in the hopes that I might.

On the first day back at school, I walked there with Jared and his girlfriend Kim who met up with us on the way. I had still not returned home and since Dad hadn't asked me to go back I had stayed put at Sam's. My stomach was full of butterflies and my heart pounding as we got there and immediately we walked through the gates, Mark and Stu headed towards us.

"Where the fuck have you been, Paul?" Stu demanded. "We sent messages."

"I was hanging out with Jared," I said.

"What the hell for?" asked Mark, eyeing Jared in the same way he might eye something unpleasant he had trodden in.

"Maybe because I wanted some intelligent conversation for a change," I told him. I noticed Jared smirking from the corner of my eye.

"Boring, you mean," Stu said. "What's gotten into you?"

"I guess I'm sick of you bullying people and boasting about who you screwed," I blurted. "Sorry, Kim," I added quietly.

"Hell, Paul, anyone would think you're turning into another fucking fag," Mark sneered.

My heart began to hammer, both with a sudden attack of nerves and with a quick rise in temper. I had a chance to start putting things right, which I knew I wouldn't have taken had Mark and Stu talked to me on my own, but I wasn't on my own this time and when I glanced at Jared he raised one eyebrow and smiled.

"That'd be pretty difficult, since I've always been gay," I said.

"What the fuck?" gasped Stu, his eyes popping.

"Will you stop cussing in front of Kim?" Jared put in then.

"What are you going to do; stop me?" Stu growled at him, taking his attention away from me now.

"If I must." Jared sighed as if it were a real inconvenience, gently put Kim behind him and dropped his bag on the ground. I shrugged my own backpack off my shoulder immediately and flexed my arms. Amusingly my school shirt, which I hadn't worn in a month, was already way too tight and now the seam ripped in one sleeve as my bicep bulged beneath it.

"Jeez, it's not worth it," Mark said, much to my surprise. "Leave it, Stu, they're most likely all the same; the chick's just a cover."

"Yeah, fuck 'em." Stu backed off and a moment later the pair of them were walking away. Jared giggled stupidly and I found myself joining in. The two bullies were intimidated by what they thought were a pair of gay guys.

So far things were going ok and for the first time ever I actually looked forward to Math because I would finally see Embry, but I was to be disappointed when I discovered the seating arrangements had been altered. He was sitting with Jake and his place was taken by Jared. My heart sank; he really didn't want anything more to do with me and there wasn't anything I could say to Jared or I would just give myself away. So I suffered in silence through the class and on through Chemistry where Jared took Embry's place beside me again. Then we were on our way to the canteen for lunch and I had no appetite for food at all. I picked up a plate of spaghetti, but played with it unenthusiastically while Jared shovelled a double portion down his neck at an impossible speed. He didn't even seem to notice that I wasn't eating, but instead eyeing another table across the room where Embry was sitting with Jake and Quil.

The pair of them sat sideways on to me, but Embry was facing, only he wasn't looking up. I gave up trying to eat and put my fork down, continuing to stare at Embry's lowered head and trying to will him to look up and see me. I could hear my own heartbeat banging wildly, my palms were damp and my breathing ragged as I wondered whether I should try talking to him again. I could hardly go over and park myself at his table with Jake and Quil there too. But then suddenly, he lifted his head, flicked his hair back over his shoulder and his eyes met mine.

I hadn't thought about what I would do if he looked at me – smile maybe – but when he actually did meet my eyes, I found I couldn't do anything at all. I seemed to freeze in place and his eyes pulled me towards him; not physically, because I didn't move from my seat, but in some curious way I felt as if I were being drawn into him. Jared next to me, the other surrounding tables, the whole of the room seemed to completely vanish and the only thing I could see and feel was Embry. My heart rate sped up so much I could barely distinguish one beat from the next and I felt a rush of heat filling me, making sweat break out through my skin and dampen my shirt. At that moment it felt as if nothing else mattered – or even existed – except him.

The moment ended and I knew that if I hadn't been sitting down, I would have fallen down. I took a deep breath and then lurched unsteadily to my feet, my only thought being to get across the room and speak to him. My chair flew over backwards with a crash and collided with someone sitting at the table behind me. Jared, who had been studying his cellphone and presumably texting Kim, leaped to his feet and grabbed my arm.

"Paul, what the hell's the matter? Take it easy."

I didn't look at him, but watched in frustration as Embry jerked his head away and spoke to his friends, then the three of them gathered up their belongings and headed for the door.

"Paul!"

"It's nothing," I grunted at Jared and turned to pick up my chair and apologise to the guy behind me. From what Sam had told me, I knew what happened, but how could I tell Jared, however close he was to me, that I just Imprinted on Embry?

**Embry's POV**

I didn't see Paul again for the rest of the holidays. Quil and I began to spend more time together without Jake, since Bella was now visiting him on a daily basis. It was like an accident waiting to happen, watching him hanging off of her every word, looking at her with eyes like an adoring puppy and neither of us could stomach it much longer. We both wanted to be there for him, but despite making a few attempts to talk to him he was too besotted to take us seriously and all we could do really was step back and wait for him to come to us when she broke his heart.

By the time school started I had told myself I had moved on from Paul, although I couldn't help an attack of nerves on that first day as I walked there with Quil and Jake, knowing I would see him in the morning classes; have to sit next to him in fact. But Quil suggested quietly that I sit with Jake instead and winked at me and I guessed he was just looking out for me. We hadn't talked about Paul again since that day on the beach, but since I had stopped moping I guessed he knew I was over it...or thought I was over it. He had never said anything to Jake about it and in a way I felt guilty that the two of us had a secret from him, but his obsession with Bella had pulled him away from us more and more lately.

Paul sat with Jared in Math and Chemistry and then everyone set off for the canteen for lunch. It was then that I discovered I really hadn't gotten over him at all. I could see him across the other side of the room sitting with Jared, playing with his food like he had no appetite and I knew he was looking at me. I kept my head down and let my hair fall over my face while I pretended enthusiasm in my lunch and did my best to concentrate on what Jake and Quil were talking about, but my skin prickled and the hair on the back of my neck stood up as I constantly felt Paul's eyes on me. Why was he suddenly so interested? Then I heard a scrap of conversation from another table nearby – one where Mark, Stu and two other guys were sitting.

"Did you know Paul Lahote's gay?"

"Fuck off!"

"No seriously, he admitted it before school this morning."

"What, to you?"

"Yeah."

"Lucky he found a new friend then, otherwise you'd be stuck hanging out with a fucking fag."

"Not for long, we'd have given him a taste of the medicine any of their sort gets."

I glanced at Quil and he met my eyes, a look of surprise on his face.

"He told them?" he whispered.

"What are you talking about?" Jake asked.

"Nothing," I said, studying my plate avidly. I raised my eyes and peered through my hair, noticing Paul was still staring almost as if he was willing me to look at him. My heart began to hammer with sudden excitement and I cursed myself for still being in danger of him hurting me. I wasn't over him; not by a long shot.

"Quil, what's going on?" pressed Jake, his full attention on us at last. "What have I missed?"

I groaned and reddened.

"Didn't you just hear what those jerks on the next table were saying about Paul?" whispered Quil.

"No, what?"

"He came out this morning."

"Out from where?" Jake said stupidly, then apparently realised. "Oh!"

Quil sniggered.

"And that's important, why?" Jake glanced from Quil to me and back again.

"You'd know all about this if you gave us even a tiny amount of time without Bella being around," grunted Quil.

"She needs me."

"Yeah and you need her like a hole in the head," said Quil.

"Quil, don't talk to me about Bella, ok? You don't understand."

Their low voices faded out as Paul filled my mind again. I had to look at him; I couldn't stop myself. But I knew if I raised my head now our eyes would meet because he was still staring and then I wouldn't know what to do with myself. Just look for God's sake, I told myself. If he's staring that keenly it's not because he wants you to drop dead; maybe he really is sorry; maybe if he told people he's gay then things will be different.

I took a deep breath, pulled my head up and threw my hair back over my shoulder and my eyes met his immediately. He didn't move a muscle, or smile or change expression in any way, he just stared back, his eyes boring into mine as if he were looking right into my soul. I stopped breathing and I could feel my heart banging against my ribs as our eyes remained locked and then suddenly it was over. His eyes shifted and he catapulted out of his chair, knocking it over backwards.

Jared looked up from whatever he was doing, Jake and Quil jerked their heads around to see what had caused the noise, Paul turned away to speak to someone at the table behind him and I breathed out fast. What the hell had happened there?

"Hell, that guy always has to cause trouble," Jake said now. "You're seriously better off without him, Embry. Let's get out of here."

"You told him?" I whispered to Quil as I got up.

"Yeah, weren't you listening?" He grabbed his bag and began to lead the way out of the hall and I followed, glancing over my shoulder once and seeing Paul staring after me. He was sitting down again and Jared was leaning forward talking to him, one hand on his arm. I turned away quickly and walked out with the others.

I couldn't concentrate on work for the rest of the day and stared blindly at the books in front of me, only hoping the teachers wouldn't call on me to answer anything because I wouldn't have had a clue what to say. Mercifully I was left alone and when the final bell of the day rang I heaved a sigh of relief, gathered up my things and left the class with Jake and Quil. Jake hadn't said anything more to me about Paul, which didn't really surprise me. He had probably gone back to 'Bella World' already and was only thinking about getting home to spend a couple hours with her in the evening.

Just as we were approaching the school gates, I realised I left a text book in the last class and I halted quickly.

"Shit, I left a book behind," I said. "Go on without me, I'll catch you up."

"Sure, ok, we'll go slow," Quil said and I ran back to rescue the book, otherwise I'd be in trouble for not being able to do my homework. I found it quickly and left the building again, turned a corner and almost ran straight into Paul.

"Hey, Embry," he said.

"Hey." My mouth went dry and I avoided his eyes. What the hell had happened earlier, I thought again.

"Can I talk to you?"

"Um...yeah, I guess." I took a step back and my shoulders bumped against the wall. With my heart thumping wildly and my knees suddenly weak, I was grateful to have it to lean on.

"You know, I meant what I said the last time I spoke to you. I know you didn't want to listen to me. I hated myself for hurting you and I'm sorry."

"Ok," I managed to say. I licked my lips. "It wasn't just that; it was..."

"I know, I freaked you out attacking those guys. I was screwed up and I went over the top, I know that. I've changed quite a bit the last few weeks; Jared helped me and I got rid of those two jerks I used to be friends with."

"I heard about that," I said. He seemed sincere and I wondered if I could really trust him. It certainly didn't look like he planned to try hiding who he was any more.

"I really fucked things up before Christmas and I don't know if you'll even give me another chance, but I'm hoping you will," he went on.

"Another chance for what?" I asked barely above a whisper. I couldn't breathe, I realised.

"For whatever you want. Maybe we could just hang out or...I hope we can at least be friends...or something."

I never would have imagined I'd see Paul nervous, but he sure seemed like that now. He was almost stammering and he fidgeted and dragged a hand through his hair as he talked, but despite that his eyes didn't waver from mine and all the feelings I had for him came bubbling right back up from wherever they had been hiding – or wherever I had forced them down to, more accurately. I wanted more than anything to give him another chance and I knew there was no way on earth I was going to say no. He smiled at me now and his eyes were warm.

"I missed sitting with you in class," he added and his smile became a sheepish grin.

I smiled back immediately; I couldn't have stopped myself at that point.

"Yeah, me too," I said. "I guess we could...swap back tomorrow."

"Cool," grinned Paul. He reached out suddenly and much to my surprise he took hold of my hand. "I guess your friends will have plenty to say about that; I suppose you told them something."

"Yeah, they have a rough idea of what happened," I admitted. "They'll be ok, they just don't want to see me get hurt." Just like I didn't want to see Jake get hurt, only Quil and I were both completely powerless to stop it.

"I won't hurt you, Em, I promise," Paul said, squeezing my hand harder.

Em? No one ever called me that; the only person who had ever shortened my name was Will and I liked it, I realised. I squeezed his hand back in return.

"I should probably...um...catch up with Jake and Quil, they said they'd wait," I told him.

"Sure...ok...I'll see you tomorrow then." He let go of my hand with apparent reluctance and took a step backwards. He was still smiling and the change in him puzzled me, but since he told Mark and Stu he was gay and was clearly unconcerned about being seen holding my hand at school, I felt that things would be ok.

"Yeah. See you tomorrow," I said and dragged myself away to hurry after the others. The minute he couldn't see my face I was grinning from ear to ear like a maniac and already longing for school the next day. Somehow I knew this time everything would be different.


	9. Chapter 9

CHAPTER NINE

**Paul's POV**

I walked slowly back to Sam's, unable to wipe the smile off my face. I had been so sceptical about Imprinting after I heard it gave you no choice and I would have been horrified if fate had picked someone for me that I didn't even know or like, but it had been kind to me and somehow, out of everyone I came into contact with every day, Embry was the one. There was now no chance I would end up forced to be with someone I didn't want; the only downside was that he could still reject me and there would be nothing I could do about that, but at least so far things were looking promising.

Jared wasn't home when I got in and Sam told me he was over at Kim's for dinner. Emily was out seeing a friend so it was just Sam and me. He ordered in pizza and we lounged in front of the television with our feet on the coffee table in the absence of Emily there to pull us up for both the junk food and the feet.

"How was school?" Sam asked me as we finished up the last couple slices of pizza.

"Good," I grunted.

"School was _good?_" grinned Sam. "Jared's obviously rubbing off on you."

"God forbid," I smiled, thinking of Embry.

"Did something happen?" Sam went on.

"Like what?" Shit, could he tell just by looking at me? I supposed he would pick up on it anyway when we were phased.

"I don't know, Paul, you tell me. You look different; almost like Jared looked when he Imprinted on Kim."

I groaned and I knew I was turning red. Sam just winked and smiled.

"Some do and some don't," he went on. "It can be a good thing and it looks like it was for you. Imprints earn the right to know about us, as Emily and Kim do, so you can bring her here when you want to so she can hear the truth."

"Sam, I Imprinted on a guy," I said, flushing more vividly. "I am gay, you know, it'd be a hell of a twist of fate if I Imprinted on a girl, don't you think?"

Sam was silent and after a few seconds I risked a look at him, wondering if he was horrified despite his acceptance of me. His face was merely stunned, mouth open a little.

"What?" I said. "Is that unusual?"

"I've never heard of it happening. It doesn't mean it has to be a problem. Who is he?"

"Um..." I hesitated now. I knew Jared had no problem with Embry, but I wasn't sure if Sam was one of the many who didn't like members of other tribes living amongst us.

"Is he one of those intended for the pack?" Sam prompted.

"No, why?"

"If he's a shifter, he may re-Imprint," Sam said

"What the hell does that mean?"

"He would Imprint on you in return. From what I've read and heard, it's only happened once, with a female shifter which is unusual in itself; it made the pair of them incredibly strong, almost invincible."

"Well, he's not even Quileute, so that won't happen," I blurted out.

Sam frowned slightly. "So he's that Makah kid? Embry, is it?"

"Yeah." I sighed heavily. "Is that a problem? I mean, you're not one of the many who hate them just for being here, are you?"

"Of course not. It just makes things more difficult in that he won't have heard anything about our history; he'll probably be less willing to understand and accept what we – what you – are."

"Well, he doesn't have to know yet, does he?" I said. "Nothing even happened between us; it would have, but I fucked it all up with him before Christmas."

"Something did happen," Sam reminded me. "Imprinting is more than anything that will ever happen between you."

I looked at him again, my happy mood beginning to evaporate. Suddenly I worried that Embry wouldn't believe what we were, would think it was some incredibly involved story we'd made up and then he would resent me, hate me even and we'd be back to square one, only it would be a hundred times worse because if he rejected me, it would hurt way more than anything that happened so far.

Later when Jared returned I told him what happened too. When I blurted out that I Imprinted in the lunch break, first his eyes widened in surprise and then he just grinned and nodded.

"So that's why you jumped out of your seat like that. I wasn't looking or I guess I would have seen it happen. Who's your Imprint?"

"Um..." Damnit, I was going red again; what the hell was it with all this stupid blushing? "Embry," I coughed.

Jared grinned, seemingly completely unsurprised. "I'm guessing we're all going to be swapping desks again tomorrow then. I didn't get why Quil changed things around in the first place."

"Just because I was a shit to Embry and they wanted to keep him away from me," I admitted. "But I sorted it out with him."

We chatted a while longer and then buckled down to homework before going to our rooms, but I knew I would struggle to sleep. I was excited and nervous about seeing Embry the next day and in addition, I was beginning to feel a strange emptiness inside me which by morning had developed into a pain in my chest. For a little while I had wondered if I was getting sick, but then I remembered what both Sam and Jared had said about Imprinting – when you were away from your Imprint for any length of time you felt physical pain. God help me if he decided he didn't want me, I thought.

By the time Jared and I left for school, I was inclined to break into a run to get there faster. Jared laughed at me briefly, but then confessed he knew exactly how I felt; a few hours away from Kim was killing him. We both hurried, meeting up with Kim on the way. Embry was already there with Quil and Jake when we arrived and he looked at me briefly, then dropped his eyes and blushed. I grinned and walked straight over to him.

"Hey, guys," I said.

Embry looked up again and smiled while the other two just stared at me as if I'd come from another planet.

"Hey," Embry said, taking a small step towards me.

"Embry?" Quil switched his gaze from me to his friend, frowning now.

"It's fine," Embry said to him and much to my delight, turned his back on the pair of them and began to walk across the yard with me instead.

"You didn't tell them anything?" I asked him.

"No. I wasn't sure..."

"If I meant it? I guess I can understand that." I grasped his hand as we walked and noticed him blush deeper and smile as I glanced sideways at him. I grinned wider. He wanted to be with me and the pain in my chest had gone. "Are you going to sit with me in class?" I asked.

"Won't Jared think it's weird?" wondered Embry.

"No, I told him about you," I said. "I told him I was going to ask if you want to go out on Friday – with me." My heart began to hammer wildly as I waited for him to answer and my mouth went dry.

"Yeah, I'd love to," he said softly.

"Great!" I squeezed his hand tighter and he smiled back at me.

People were staring and I realised with some surprise that I didn't care one bit. Then suddenly Jared and Kim had caught us up and were walking with us and again I stopped noticing anybody else. I knew now it didn't matter what Mark and Stu and the other jerks thought; I wouldn't let any of them upset or hurt Embry and Jared would back me up. I no longer even cared whether my Dad found out or what he thought. I had a home with Sam and Emily and finally I could forget about Dad's bullshit and just be myself.

**Embry's POV**

I couldn't believe the difference in Paul after he talked to me on Monday when school finished. I barely slept that night, trying not to get my hopes up that he would want to talk to me again on Tuesday, but hoping anyway and by the time I met Jake and Quil in the morning, I was filled with nervous excitement. There was no way he would want to be seen talking to me, I was sure of that, but maybe he would find me when no one was around.

As I stood talking to Jake and Quil in the school grounds, waiting for the first bell, I saw Paul arrive with Jared and Kim and when he suddenly left them and made a beeline for me, my excitement only increased. Within a couple of minutes I was walking away with him, his hand holding mine and I knew Jake and Quil were gawking after us in disbelief. I could barely believe it myself. Everyone seemed to be looking and Paul didn't turn a hair; it was as if he suddenly wanted everybody to know he liked me. I almost forgot to breathe so when he asked if I wanted to go out Friday night it was as much as I could do to whisper an answer. I didn't even bother to ask where he planned to take me; I couldn't really have cared less if we just walked on the beach and talked; the fact that he wanted to see me at all was amazing in itself.

I was surprised that nobody said a word to me that week about Paul or anything else; even his old friends said nothing. Paul, Jared and Kim began to hang out with me, Quil and Jake throughout all the breaks and the one occasion where Stu dared look at me wrong, Paul and Jared both scowled at him and he backed off. That was all that happened. Quil and Jake were pretty curious to know what was going on of course and apparently couldn't wait to get me away from Paul after school on Tuesday to give me the third degree.

"We don't want to see you get hurt again," Jake said and I couldn't help a slight laugh.

"At least he admitted he was wrong and promised he wouldn't do it again," I said. "What about you?"

"What about me?" sighed Jake.

"You're on the slippery slope to heartbreak, my friend," Quil put in. "You're too blinded by Bella's big sad eyes to see it."

"I told you before, leave her alone," he said at once.

"Fine, we'll leave it," shrugged Quil. "We'll still be around when you want a shoulder to cry on." He glanced at me and rolled his eyes. His brief liking for Bella had quickly vanished and he merely felt sorry for Jake the same why I did, now I had gotten over feeling sorry for myself.

On Friday I told Mom I was going out with my friends and she seemed unconcerned by this. I spent virtually all of my spare time with Jake and Quil and she simply assumed I would be with them, although they both knew what I was really doing and had promised to cover for me if necessary. I met Paul at the bus stop and we stood a little way back from the road, holding hands and talking as we waited for the bus to Forks. Paul was taking me to the movies to see 'Underworld Evolution', something about vampires which I'd always been fascinated by. We had maybe ten minutes to wait for the bus, but before it had chance to arrive, a large blue truck pulled up nearby and Paul stiffened, his hand suddenly tightening on mine until he almost crushed my fingers.

"Shit," he muttered.

"What is it?" I asked as a man climbed out of the vehicle.

"That's my Dad."

"I'm sorry." I pulled my hand free of his quickly and backed away. He was going to get hell from his Dad now and he would probably blame me, I thought.

"Paul! What the hell do you think you're doing? Get in the truck!" Mr Lahote growled, advancing on Paul.

"Leave me alone, I'm going to the movies," he said. "With my friend."

_"Friend!"_ the man spat. "That what you call it? What's gotten into you? Haven't I taught you well enough?" He grabbed Paul roughly by the arm and I backed away further, shivering and wishing I could so something to help.

"Get the fuck off of me!" Paul exclaimed, much to my surprise, and he shook his Dad's hand off easily. "You know nothing about me, you never did. You spent the last God knows how many years ramming your bigoted ideas down my throat, never giving a damn what I really thought or felt! I'm gay, Dad, I've known that since puberty and I spent most of that time hating myself because of the things you said. I'm sorry, but if you don't like it, it's too bad. You can either accept it, or go to hell and let me carry on living with Sam and Emily."

He was shouting and I was even more surprised when his Dad backed off a little, holding up both hands as if to ward him off.

"Alright, son, calm down," he said. "No need to get all over-heated. Look...you seem to be doing ok with Sam and Emily, so it's probably best you stay with them. You know what my thoughts are and they're not going to change." He took another step towards his truck. "I'll be seeing you. Call around whenever you want to get the rest of your stuff." In a few more seconds he was gone and Paul turned back towards me.

"I'm sorry," I said again.

"Don't keep saying that, Em, it's ok," he said softly and wrapped his arms around me suddenly. He hugged me tight, stroking one hand over my hair and I could feel the heat of him - far too much heat unless he was running a fever. He wore only jeans and a long sleeved shirt with half of the buttons undone while even with a jacket on I was cold. He was like a furnace and as my hand rested on his chest I could feel his heart beating impossibly fast. He took several deep shaky breaths and quickly his heart slowed and he loosened his hold on me.

"Shit, I shouldn't have done that, I'm sorry," he said, shaking himself.

"Done what?" I asked, puzzled. I didn't get it and I was more baffled by the fact that he had apparently intimidated his own father and blurted out that he was gay when I knew he didn't want him to know.

"Nothing. Forget it." He took hold of my hand again. "Here's the bus."

By the time we were halfway to Forks I had forgotten those few strange moments and was simply enjoying being out on a date with Paul. He wouldn't let me pay for a thing, despite my protests, and pulled out his wallet for the bus fare, movie theatre tickets, popcorn and coke and so on. We went to the seven-thirty showing of the movie and there were probably only twenty other people in there, none of them near the back. We sat in one corner of the last row in the dark, shared the snacks and watched the trailers, then the first half hour of the movie. I guessed I would have liked it if I paid it enough attention, but I was too aware of Paul's arm resting around my shoulders, his warm breath in my ear every time he leaned closer to say something to me and then his lips brushing my cheek, his other hand rising to my face and touching my hair. My skin began to come out in goosebumps and my heart raced. I knew he was going to kiss me properly any second and I was already aroused, remembering the school party when we kissed and touched each other under the tree. His lips touched mine, just a light peck, then another; then his mouth covered mine eagerly and his tongue thrust in. I closed my eyes, trying not to moan as his tongue explored my mouth, his lips crushing mine and his arms pulling me tighter against him.

I drew back after a few minutes, breathless and uncomfortable from the damned armrest between the two seats digging into me as I leaned over it. Paul grinned and leaned over it himself, pushing my hair aside and nibbling my ear and my neck, making me shiver. I wanted him to touch me, in fact I ached for it, but he only kissed and cuddled me throughout the rest of the movie, tormenting me as my erection strained against the front of my jeans in an effort to escape. By the time we left, I had to pull my shirt out of my pants so that it hung loose over the front of them to cover up my excitement. I couldn't help a quick glance down at Paul and it was pretty obvious he was in the same state I was, only he didn't seem particularly bothered about covering it up. Once outside it was dark anyway and we walked slowly down the street in the direction of the bus stop.

"Do you want to get something to eat?" Paul asked me.

"Only if you let me pay," I said with a grin.

"Not happening. _I'm_ taking _you _out, remember?" He draped his arm around my neck and pressed his lips against my ear. "Fried chicken or pizza?"

"Pizza."

We ducked into a pizza store, ordered a large fully loaded to go and then wandered over to the small park by the bus station. We had almost an hour before the last bus back to La Push and we found a bench, munched our way through the pizza and then sat cuddling and talking. I was getting really cold by then and my hands were almost numb, but Paul in just his shirt was as warm as ever. He grasped my cold hands and pulled them inside his shirt, then folded his arms around me and I quickly began to warm up, the heat of him radiating through me. We prised ourselves apart reluctantly when the bus arrived, but then sat cuddling each other in the back seat on the empty bus as it lumbered slowly back to the reservation. I didn't want the evening to end and I let out a sigh as we stepped off the bus. It was only a five minute walk to my house from there and it was eleven-forty, which meant in twenty minutes Mom would go nuts if I wasn't home.

Paul rested an arm around me again as we walked along the edge of the road to my street and then maybe a hundred yards from the house he steered me off the road to the shade of a small clump of trees. He grabbed me by the waist, pushed me backwards against one of the tree trunks and leaned in to kiss me. It reminded me of that night at the party. I slid my arms around his neck and my lips parted on a gasp as his tongue plunged between them, his body pressing against mine. He was immediately as excited as I was, the hard bulge in his jeans grinding against my own dick, making me groan and squirm against him. Despite the fact that we were just a few feet from the edge of the road and the houses, I was so excited I would have let him do anything at that point so it was just as well he had some control. He kissed me for several long moments until I was breathless, holding me tight and pressing himself against me, but then he drew back and slowed things down.

"I better go before your Mom comes looking for you," he whispered.

"Yeah, well maybe I'll just tell her, like you told your Dad," I said.

"There's no need, not yet," Paul said. "Don't make things difficult for yourself. I'm ok, I'm living at Sam's."

"Yeah, I suppose." I sighed heavily. "I guess I should go in. Thank you for tonight." I smiled now and leaned closer again to give him another light kiss. He grinned.

"Don't thank me. Just agree to come out tomorrow. In the day though, I got some stuff to do at home tomorrow night."

"Ok," I said at once.

After the way he had treated me all evening, it didn't seem like it would have been a one-off, but it still delighted me when he asked to see me again. We swapped cellphone numbers and he promised to text me the next day to arrange to meet up. Then reluctantly I tore myself away and went home. Mum was up waiting for me and to my surprise all she said was that I was back just in time and she hoped I had a good night. Then she left me to it and went to her room. Relieved that she hadn't wanted to talk, I hurried into my room, closed the door and dragged off my clothes. I was so hard I ached and I couldn't help grinning as I dived into my bed. I closed my eyes and slid my hand down my body, grasping my erection and imagining it was Paul's hand on me as I began to stroke myself, reliving our kisses in my head.

It didn't take me very long to finish and I quickly cleaned up the mess with a handful of tissues before I lay down again and closed my eyes. I didn't think I would be able to sleep, but it was only moments before I felt myself drifting off and I sank into oblivion with Paul in my head and a smile on my face.


	10. Chapter 10

CHAPTER TEN

**Paul's POV**

Sam and Jared were out patrolling when I got in, so I exchanged a few words with Emily and then went to my room. I couldn't seem to stop smiling and once I got into bed I couldn't keep my hands off of myself either. I jacked myself off vigorously and wondered with amusement if Embry was doing the same thing. He had been just as aroused as I was when we kissed and I could imagine him doing it. The thought only excited me even more and I finished much quicker than usual.

There was only one thing about the evening that was making me kick myself and in fact had been bothering me since it happened. After my altercation with Dad it had been instinct to go and hug Embry, wanting to let him know it was ok and knowing that holding him would make me feel better, but I had been so close to phasing - my temper barely restrained, the heat in me rolling up through my body to the point where it was ready to explode out of me. Dad had seen that and backed off, but I had been stupid. If I hadn't managed to push it back down I could have hurt Embry, even killed him. I couldn't afford to be that careless again. Emily carried three terrible scars on her face from when Sam once phased too close to her and she had been lucky.

Well, I had gotten away with it; I had held it back and I hadn't hurt him; I just wouldn't let that happen again. I relaxed and smiled again in the darkness, wondering if there was any chance I would sleep while I was counting off the hours until I could see him again.

I opened my eyes hours later and found it was approaching six-thirty on Saturday morning. I was instantly wide awake and I sat up and grabbed my cellphone, the immediate longing to at least text Embry overpowering. He was probably still asleep, but what the hell.

'Miss you, can't wait to see you, x,' I typed and sent it before I thought I probably sounded too eager.

'Miss you too, last night was awesome, x.' His reply arrived in seconds and I grinned stupidly. He had either been waiting for me to contact him or was considering whether to text me first.

'Meet me on the beach at eight?' I typed. Might as well make the most of the time we had. I wondered if eight was too early, but he replied at once to say he would be there. I jumped out of bed and headed for the shower, beating Sam and Emily who weren't even awake yet. By the time they rose I was drinking coffee and trying to decide whether to force some food down my neck, but excitement had diminished my usual appetite.

"Couldn't you sleep?" Sam asked, yawning widely.

"Not after six." I smirked and gulped some coffee. "I'm going out soon."

"You know you can bring Embry here when you want," Sam told me.

"Yeah, I know. Maybe next week." I knew that when he came over he would learn about us and I wanted to put it off, just for a little while. Maybe if he really fell for me first, what he learned wouldn't put him off me. I didn't know if that theory would actually work or not, but I was stupidly nervous about telling him anything. He liked his vampire movies, but would he really be able to make the leap from the silver screen to reality? Would it be too much for him to accept he was dating a werewolf? The idea would have sounded ridiculous if it wasn't painfully true and I had already seen him scared of me once; I didn't want that again.

By the time I left the house at seven-forty I was virtually aching to see him, my chest hollow and painful and I sprinted to the beach, guessing I would probably have to stand there and wait once I got there, but it was better than pacing around the house any longer. However, I had been there about a minute when Embry appeared, apparently as keen to see me as I was him. Well he would never be that due to me having Imprinted, but close enough. I grinned as he came towards me and grabbed him in a hug, then planted my mouth on his before he had a chance to speak and kissed him until we were both breathless. When I drew back, his cheeks were flushed and his eyes sparkled and I didn't want to let go of him. I wondered how I would have felt without the Imprint - would I still want him this much? Care for him this much? Even love him? I had to admit I probably would; it may just have taken a little longer for me to feel that way and may have been less intense.

"Paul?"

"Yeah." I realised I was just staring at him, almost drowning and I pulled myself together quickly. "What do you want to do today?"

"I don't care," he said. "Anything."

I knew what I wanted to do - I wanted to take him somewhere and do all the things I thought about when I was getting myself off last night - but we were lacking a place to go unless Sam took Emily out some time and with neither of us yet able to drive we couldn't even borrow Sam's truck. I backed off reluctantly and suggested we get the bus into Forks and have a huge late breakfast in a diner.

We made the meal brunch - bacon, sausage, eggs, hash browns, beans, biscuits and gravy and a heap of pancakes with maple syrup. We ate enough between us to satisfy a family of four, although I guess I ate much more than half myself. Once he was with me and I was no longer empty and aching, I was starving. Embry stubbornly refused to let me pay this time and I gave in rather than argue.

Afterwards we wandered around town window shopping and then returned to La Push to spend a couple hours on the beach. The couple hours quickly turned into four or five as we sat on a patch of dry sand sheltered by rocks, cuddling and kissing and whispering to each other, until we were interrupted by my cellphone ringing insistently. It was Sam, demanding I go home and get myself ready to patrol. I dragged myself away with great reluctance and that night I knew I irritated the hell out of Sam and Jared when as usual I was unable to keep my thoughts to myself.

_"You know, things will be a lot easier when Embry knows about us," _Jared pointed out. _"He could be sitting at home right now with Emily and Kim waiting for you."_

He was right and I would have liked nothing more than to run home, phase outside as we always did before going inside to find Embry there. I would bring him to see Sam I thought determinedly. In just a few more days.

I spent most of Sunday with Embry again and then had to content myself with sitting next to him in class at school and studying with him a couple hours each evening at Jake's house. Jake and Quil were gradually beginning to accept my presence although I knew they still expected me to kick Embry in the teeth again, even though I guess I made it pretty obvious how I felt about him, cuddling him, holding his hand, kissing his ear, playing with his hair and so on until I made him blush and push me away while Jake and Quil occasionally rolled their eyes or frowned at me.

Friday, Jared was planning to take Kim to the movies and I finally invited Embry back for dinner that night. I was actually dreading it, convinced he would either think it was some elaborate story made up to get rid of him because I changed my mind, or else he would believe it and be afraid of me. I couldn't even make myself consider a positive outcome and I had to force my share of the meal Emily cooked past the lump in my throat so I didn't make it obvious anything was wrong. Sam helped Emily with the dishes afterwards and Embry and I went into the lounge. I sat down at one end of the sofa, grabbed Embry and pulled him down onto my lap, hugging him tight.

"Hey, they'll catch us in a minute," he protested.

"I don't care." I lifted one hand to touch his face and tipped my head back to kiss him; a warm and gentle kiss. I wanted him to know what I was feeling, but would he think it was too soon? Would I sound desperate? I felt desperate. "You know how I feel about you, right?" I murmured. "Em, I..."

"Either of you want coffee?" Emily asked suddenly from the doorway and then giggled as Embry leaped off my lap quickly and sat next to me instead, his face red. Damnit.

"Um...no, thanks, we're good," I said.

"Ok, I won't bother then, Sam doesn't want it either." She came into the room and curled herself up in the armchair opposite us. Sam came in a moment later and I reached out to take hold of Embry's hand, mainly to reassure him when Sam started talking, but partly to stop him running away. I was convinced it was all about to go horribly wrong.

To his credit, Sam told the story pretty well and I guessed if I was of another tribe and knew nothing of Quileute history, I would have believed every word. When he started talking about our ancestors, Embry was clearly interested and listened keenly, putting in the odd question here and then. Right up until the point where the word 'shape-shifter' came into it. He carried on listening, but his eyes narrowed slightly and he glanced at me a few times, as if he were wondering if I actually believed it.

"Is this true?" he asked eventually, when Sam got to the part where he first phased himself last summer.

"Yeah, it's true. I guess this must all be pretty hard to take," Sam said.

"A little, yeah. It sounds like something Stephen King wrote." He looked at me then. "What has this to do with you? Are you going to tell me you're one of them?"

"Yes," I said. "Jared was second to shift, right around the time he was out of school sick for a week before Christmas. For me, it was during the holidays."

"And you're saying you all turn into actual wolves? I don't know...I kind of believe it, because you're all sitting here so serious...even you, Emily." He looked at her and she smiled back at him. "But it's...impossible."

"Not so impossible," Emily said. "Look at the world we live in; there's something impossible in everything we see every day. Before our tribes were made to live on reservations, who would have thought we would fly around the world or go to the moon, or even drive a car? Nature and legends are just as unbelievable, but it doesn't make them any less true."

"Yeah, I guess. You know, when you put it like that, I suppose it's not all that weird after all," Embry said, although he still sounded doubtful.

Sam talked some more, finishing the story and eventually the doubt left Embry's face and he looked interested once again. I heaved a huge sigh of relief. I still didn't think he was going to just accept things, but it all went a lot better than I hoped. When I walked him home later, we continued talking about it.

"Does your Dad know about...what you are?" Embry asked.

"Yeah, Sam talked to him, but he already believed the legends. Remember last week when he saw us at the bus stop? That's why he backed off so quick when I yelled at him. He thought I'd change and hurt him."

"You were burning up," he said.

"Yeah and I put you in danger, that's why I said sorry. I should have kept away from you until I was calm. You've seen Emily's face. Sam did that. It was an accident, he was too close to her when he shifted and he's been eaten up with guilt over it ever since."

"Shit, isn't she scared to be around him?"

"No, she's nuts about him and she's his Imprint too, so he'll never leave her or let anyone hurt her or..."

"What's an Imprint?" interrupted Embry and I mentally kicked myself. Sam had left that part out for me to add later, but I hadn't intended to blurt it out now. He had enough to swallow already without me dumping that on him.

"It's...um...it's kind of like fate or something; it's hard to describe. It's supposed to be where a shifter selects their mate, but you don't choose, they're chosen for you. After the first time you phase, when you see that person the first time and meet their eyes, it's like they're all there is. Suddenly they're your whole world and nothing else matters. After that, the most important thing to you is that you make them happy." I babbled on, reliving the moment in the canteen where I looked across the room at him and it happened, even as I began to realise the more I said the worse I was making things for myself. Embry slid his hand out of mine and wrapped his arms around himself instead, walking slower and slower until he stopped altogether.

"You sound like you're talking from experience; so you Imprinted on someone?" he asked.

"Yeah."

"But you said it selects a _mate_ for you, so it must be a girl, right?" he said in a small voice.

"Not this time," I said. "Sam was surprised, but I guess there must be a reason. I Imprinted on you, Em."

His eyes widened and he stared at me in shock. "When?"

"That day in the canteen when I looked at you and then jumped up and knocked my chair over." I knew I should have kept my fucking mouth shut; the colour was leaking out of his face and he was trembling.

"Em..." I reached out to touch him and he stepped out of reach.

"It was only after that you wanted to talk to me," he said. "That day after school and then the next you asked me out." To my horror his eyes filled with tears. "You asked me out because you Imprinted? Because you didn't have a choice?" he said.

"No! It was nothing to do with it. I always liked you; I know I fucked it up after the damned school party but..."

"How can you know that?" Embry interrupted. "How do you know you would still have wanted this...this last week...if fate hadn't _made_ you feel like that? How can I know it's real?" A tear spilled over and trickled down his cheek and I felt a crushing pain around my heart. I took a step towards him again, but he backed away further.

"I know it's real," I said. "I'm crazy about you, I..."

"Isn't that what's supposed to happen though? If fate or whatever the hell it is picks your mate for you, then you have to like them."

"I felt like that long before this happened," I repeated. "I tried to talk to you on the beach, remember? You told me to leave you alone."

"I was hurt." He scrubbed a hand over his eyes as another tear escaped. "I'm still hurt! I don't want this, Paul. It was bad enough having to hear all that stuff Sam told me. I believed it, but it scared the shit out of me. And now you tell me you're crazy about me, but you never did anything about it. Until you _Imprinted_ you didn't even try to speak to me again."

"I was trying to deal with the fact that I was a fucking wolf!" I exclaimed. "It wasn't something I wanted and I couldn't control the rage and everything else that comes with it at the beginning. Jared had to stay with me practically every minute to stop me going off at every little thing."

I shut my mouth, realising I was only making things worse and the fact that he was hurting was like a punch in the stomach. I ached and it was becoming difficult just to suck air into my lungs. Now my pain and desperation had made me bark at him and he looked more upset than ever. Consequently the agony in me increased and my temperature rose. All I wanted to do was reached out to him again, wrap my arms around him, but I was in the same state I had been when I saw Dad and I couldn't see how I was going to calm down this time. I backed away a few steps.

"I have to go home," Embry said shakily.

"Please, just talk to me. I thought you were ok about the wolf thing." I had no idea what to say now to put things back to the way they were. If only I hadn't told him about the Imprint, but I had to go blurting it all out like a fool.

"I was...am...but the rest...it's too much. I can't do this, Paul, I need you to leave me alone."

"Em, don't do this, please," I begged. He was going to break up with me because I couldn't prove I had really felt anything for him and at that moment I hated what I was.

"I'm sorry. I don't think we should see each other any more," he sniffed and turned away as a flood of tears began to pour down his face.

"Em!" I shouted in anguish and rushed after him, grabbing him and making him look at me again. I gripped his arms, too hard in my desperation and he flinched and groaned. I let go quickly, mortified. "I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to hurt you."

"I know you didn't, but you keep on doing it one way or another," he choked. "I'm going home. Leave me be, I just want to be alone."

He turned and began to run away from me and this time I stayed still simply because I had to. It was one other thing Sam had told me about Imprinting; that you had to do what your Imprint asked you to do, whether you liked it or not. He wanted me to leave him alone and I had to. I couldn't even make my feet run after him again; it was as if some strange force was holding me back and I stood there, crushed, watching him disappear. I loved him - Imprint or not - I knew I did. He was all I wanted; all I had ever wanted, and the fact that he didn't want me back killed me. The pain brought by his rejection of my Imprint was like a knife through my soul and I stood there shivering and burning up at the same time, knowing I was going to phase any second and not even trying to calm myself. It was dark now and the beach deserted, so I let the heat flood through me until I was rolling forwards, my body swelling and changing shape, my clothes ripping off of me in small pieces as I landed on all fours, snarling.

I began to run in the opposite direction to that Embry had gone, racing along the sand and up the path towards the far end of the reservation behind Sam's house until I reached the forest, then continuing along one of the paths through the trees, my paws flying, ears back, letting out repeated growls of pain and fury as I put as much distance between myself and everything that was wrong as I could. I finally halted in the mountains and lay down beneath a tree, doing my best to make my mind go blank as I picked up on Sam and Jared's thoughts when they began to patrol.

_"Where the hell can he be? He was only going to walk Embry home,"_ Sam voice said.

_"How did Embry take it? Maybe they had a fight," _Jared suggested.

I shut them out quickly and stayed quiet and closed off, my head hurting with the effort. I don't know how long I lay there, but I watched the moon rise and the stars come out and noticed frost appearing on the foliage around me. I knew I would have to go back eventually and as the night slipped by, I got to my feet and began to make my way back down the mountain. I could no longer sense Sam and Jared and guessed they must have gone home and phased back.

It was dawn by the time I reached the house and I phased by the back porch, finding a pair of shorts there waiting for me. I pulled them on then sat down on the steps, shaking. Now human, the pain which had diminished somewhat in wolf form now hit me again with more force than before. I burst into tears and sat there sobbing until I almost made myself sick, not knowing how I could possibly recover from this. I couldn't even talk to Embry again, try to make him see how much I loved him, because he had asked me to leave him be. All I could do was try to find a way to deal with the anguish and loneliness which now threatened to suck me down and hope that somehow, Embry would change his mind.


	11. Chapter 11

CHAPTER ELEVEN

**Embry's POV**

By the time I got home I was blinded by tears and I stumbled up the steps onto the porch, throwing the door open and almost falling through it. I didn't stop to think that my dramatic entrance was only going to bring a string of questions from Mom; I just wanted to get inside where nobody could see me and hide in my room.

"Embry! Whatever's the matter?" Mom exclaimed as I slammed the door after me and headed straight for my room. She came out of the lounge the minute she heard me.

"Nothing," I choked and pulled my door open.

"It's obviously something. I thought you were just out with Jake and Quil tonight. Did something happen on the way home?"

She followed me as I threw myself on the bed and scrubbed my hands over my face, doing my best to get control of myself. She wasn't going away and I didn't know what excuse I could give her for the state I was in. Maybe I should just tell her the truth. Not the shape-shifter stuff, but the rest of it. She'd hate me, but what the hell? At least it would be out in the open. How much worse could I possibly feel than I did now? I sat up and dragged my hands through my hair.

"Tell me what's going on, I can help," Mom prompted. To my surprise she sat down on the edge of the bed next to me and put her arm around me.

"No, you can't," I sniffed.

"Are you getting bullied or something like that?"

"Not any more." Not since Paul had been protecting me, I thought and fresh tears spilled over.

"Well, what is it? Come on, honey."

It was a long time since I had heard Mom sound as caring as she did then and I wondered if she would understand after all. I doubted it, but who knew.

"I was seeing someone...for the last week," I said haltingly. "I thought it was special, but...we broke up."

"Why didn't you tell me you had a girlfriend? You could have brought her here if you wanted," Mom said, sounding pleased all of a sudden.

"Well, no chance of that now, like I said we broke up and anyway you wouldn't have liked who I was seeing, it wasn't a girl, it was a boy, I'm gay, I always have been, I told you that before and you wouldn't listen," I blurted out at top speed.

I heard Mom suck her breath in suddenly and her arm stiffened where it lay across my shoulders, then after a moment she withdrew it and folded her arms, breathing out slowly.

"I thought that was all nonsense put into your head by that Lucien boy," Mom said, getting to her feet now and moving to stand by the door. "You can't possibly know what you want at fifteen, Embry."

"I do know," I muttered, pulling the front of my t-shirt up to wipe my wet face. "You just want to pretend it's not true. Nobody really cares here, or at least most people don't, it's not Neah Bay."

"I am not having you running around with boys, it's not normal!" exclaimed Mom. "It's...disgusting!"

"Well, I guess I'm not surprised you think that, I know you wish I'd never been born," I said bitterly.

"I've never said that, Embry, what a terrible thing to say!"

"Right before we came here you said I brought shame on the family by being born, that's as good as saying you wished you hadn't had me!"

For some reason my pain was diminishing and I was beginning to feel anger instead. Several times now over the past few weeks I had lost my temper and although most of those times I'd had good reason, it just wasn't like me. Now I couldn't control myself and I leaped up off the bed.

"I'm sorry," Mom was saying.

"I know you're sorry!" I shouted. "You're sorry you got knocked up by some guy who left you to bring shame on the family by having me! You're sorry you had the stigma of being an unmarried mother for fifteen years! You're sorry I turned out to be gay because it disgusts you and you're sorry I'm making you listen to all of this so you can't shove it under the carpet any longer! Leave me alone, Mom!"

I stood there shaking and sweating, glaring at her, expecting her to yell at me, tell me I was grounded, confiscate my cellphone or something, but she simply opened the door, walked out of the room without a word and closed it behind her. I stood there staring at the closed door, panting and trembling. My stomach and my legs hurt and I was so hot I could barely stand it. My heart was beating so fast it felt as if it were vibrating and it reminded me of the way Paul's felt when he held me after his Dad saw us at the bus stop.

"What the fuck is wrong with me?" I muttered. I felt as if I was going to be sick and the pain in my stomach rose into my chest, feeling more like a burning sensation than an ache. "Mom!" I called out, but my voice came out strangely, deep and croaky and I doubted she would have heard me.

I opened the window and then tore my t-shirt off over my head, my body slick with sweat and my hair immediately stuck to my skin around my neck and down my back.

"_Mom!"_ It sounded right in my head, but what came out of my mouth was more like, "Mmrrraaarrr!"

I dropped into a crouch on the floor before I fell down, which I was convinced I would do any second. I had no idea what was happening to me, but I felt as if I might spontaneously combust or simply have a heart attack and die right there in my room with no one to help me.

I didn't die, or burst into flames. What happened was that I shook myself and squeezed my eyes shut for a moment and when I opened them again and looked down I saw light grey paws where my hands should have been. I jerked my head from one side to the other, looking behind me at my large body covered in shaggy grey fur, a tail waving behind me and when I caught sight of my reflection in the long mirror on the wardrobe a wolf was looking back at me.

I had to be dreaming. I must have come in, upset over what had happened with Paul and maybe cried myself to sleep. Because of what he and Sam had told me it had made me dream that I was the same. But it was so _real!_ I closed my eyes again and willed myself to wake up, imagining myself lying on my bed sleeping, opening my eyes slowly and pulling myself out of the dream, but when I cautiously took another peek in the mirror, there was still a wolf there. It _was_ real! But that meant...what? How could I be one of those shape-shifters like Paul and Sam and Jared when I was Makah? Unless...Mom slept with a Quileute guy? So I was neither one thing nor the other, something for which I would be frowned upon even more than I was already for being Makah on a Quileute reservation.

Confused, anguished, hurt, angry, I let out a sound halfway between a snarl and a howl and then froze as Mom knocked on the door.

"Embry?"

Oh, shit. I couldn't let her see me like this. I'd scare the hell out of her; maybe hurt her. I turned towards the open window and gauged the size of the opening; just about enough for my body to fit through. I sprang up onto the bed, planting my front paws on the sill. Another small leap and I was through and bounding away into the darkness.

I fled to the beach, raced along the sand to the far end of the reservation where Sam lived and then headed for the forest so I could hide and try to figure out what had happened. As I ran, my thoughts whirled around my head, a jumble of pain and fury and disbelief over everything that had happened that day with Paul and what Sam told me and now what had happened to me, making me doubt my mother and everything about my life. I was lost and I desperately needed someone to help me, but there was no one I felt I could turn too. I was completely alone.

**Paul's POV**

I dragged myself into the house and made my way to my room, slipping past the lounge door so that I didn't have to speak to Sam and Jared and Emily who were all in there talking about me. It was dawn and they were all up worrying, but I couldn't bring myself to talk to them. I closed my door quietly and threw myself onto the bed, my whole body wracked with pain, the worst of it surrounding my heart which felt as if it were being ripped out of my chest. I hurt my Imprint; made him afraid of me; made him think I only cared for him because fate had forced it to happen and his rejection was killing me. I wasn't sure whether that was literal or not, but I felt worse than I'd ever felt in my life and if I was actually dying it wouldn't have surprised me.

I writhed around, grinding my teeth and struggling not to let myself burst into tears again or shout and scream or get up and smash something. Sweat poured out of me, soaking the shorts I wore and the quilt beneath me and I expected to phase again at any moment, but somehow I didn't. Eventually I simply passed out and when I woke again it was noon and Emily was sitting beside me, bathing my face and chest with a cool damp cloth while Sam stood close by watching.

"What happened?" he asked me now. "Is it Embry?"

"He rejected me." The words were torn out of my throat and I closed my eyes again and screwed my face up in anguish. "He told me to stay away from him."

"He seemed to have taken everything pretty well before he left," Sam said.

"I fucked up. I told him I Imprinted and it was too much. He thinks that's the only reason I want him." I rolled away from them and pressed my face into the damp pillow with a groan. "Am I going to die?"

"No, you won't, but it'll hurt like hell," Sam said.

"Right now I'd rather be dead."

"It will get better, Paul, but it won't go away."

"Great."

"Get up," he said then, touching my shoulder. "Jared's still here. We'll go out and patrol."

"You have to be kidding me. I can't move. And it's broad daylight," I moaned.

"No one will see us in the forest and with something else to focus on, how you're feeling will lessen for a while."

"Leave me alone." I pulled the pillow out from beneath me and put it on top of my head, folding both arms over the top of it. My eyes were stinging with the threat of more tears and I just wanted them to go away and leave me to die or wallow in self-pity or whatever.

I heard footsteps as they left the room, but at the same time more came back in and the bed shifted as Jared sat down in the place Emily had vacated.

"Come on, Paul, you can't just lie here like this, it won't help," he said.

"Fuck off, Jared." I hated the sound of my voice; words like those should have been growled out, but I had merely whined.

"You can say that all you like, but I'm just going to sit here until you get up," he said quietly.

"Don't you ever quit?" I groaned.

"Nope. We're brothers, right? That means we stick by each other and if one of us is hurting, the others go nowhere."

I remained still for a moment and then slowly took my arms off of the pillow and threw it off the edge of the bed, then rolled over and scrubbed my hands over my face. Jared got up and waited while I rose slowly and stood up on rather shaky legs. The pain in my chest was no less than it had been hours before and suddenly I couldn't wait to phase, imagining it would decrease the intensity of what I was feeling.

I walked up to the edge of the forest with Jared and Sam and we took our shorts off and phased together. Immediately I realised that being in wolf form made no difference to the pain of a rejected Imprint, which I should have known really. I had been in agony through the night too when I had hidden myself from the other guys. I wanted to simply collapse onto my belly and just lie there feeling sorry for myself, but I launched myself into a run and led the way through the trees. Sam and Jared followed, apparently happy for me to take the lead for the moment and we ran on as the afternoon passed slowly. Deep in the mountains, with dusk approaching, I finally halted and Sam and Jared stopped close by. Our heads all turned south as one.

"_There's a fourth pack member,"_ Sam's voice said.

"_Another wolf? Who? We've had no signs,"_ Jared responded in surprise.

"_I don't know, I can't pick up his thoughts yet, it's just a presence,"_ said Sam. _"He's in pain. Let's go."_

Sam led the way and we raced south. I could hear Sam and Jared's curious thoughts and I knew they could hear mine; curiosity mingled with pain and longing. I had tried initially to squash it rather than completely embarrass myself, but I just couldn't do it and I knew I was making them suffer too. Now it lessened a little as we all ran to help the lost and as yet unknown wolf.

It was an hour before we got close enough to catch his thoughts and then we all skidded to a stop immediately as the hysterical and terrified muddle came into our minds.

"_How the hell can this have happened to me? I have Quileute blood, why did Mom never tell me? What the hell am I? One of those fucking wolves Sam told me about. This is insane, I must be in some kind of nightmare. I don't know what to do. Mom hates me being gay. Paul doesn't really want me, he only wanted me because of that fucking stupid Imprint that says he has no choice. Or maybe he was telling the truth, I wish he was telling the truth, I wish he was here. What am I going to do? Fuck, someone's listening to me!"_

"_It's Embry,"_ Jared's voice said. _"How the hell..?"_

"_Shit, it's Jared and probably the others too, oh God, they can hear what I'm thinking!"_ Embry's thoughts sounded mortified now and suddenly he shut them off and we had the sense of him drawing away from us, both mentally and physically.

"_I'm going after him!"_ I began to spring forward in a panic. I had to get to him, to tell him it was ok, comfort him, try to make him feel better. I was so completely shocked that he had phased that I really wasn't sure how to deal with it, but I had to do something.

"_Stay where you are!"_ Sam's rumbling voice halted my paws before I had even gone ten yards and I turned to face him. His Alpha power had forcibly stopped me, the same way the power of the Imprint had allowed Embry to make me leave him alone. I growled in frustration and dug my claws into the earth beneath me.

"_How did this even happen?"_ Jared wondered. _"He's Makah."_

"_Half. You heard what he was thinking. His father must have been Quileute,"_ Sam said slowly. His head dropped low suddenly and I could almost hear his mind whirring, ticking over, working things out although no coherent words or thoughts came from him. I looked at Jared impatiently and he just cocked his head to one side and waited while I pawed at the ground and gnashed my teeth.

"_Sam?"_ Jared prompted.

"_You know what this means, don't you?"_

"_Hmmm."_

"_What the fuck are you talking about?" _I demanded. _"Am I missing something here? Will you two quit? Embry's out there, scared out of his mind and we're standing around doing fuck all!"_

"_Alright, calm down, Paul," _Sam said.

"_Then tell me what's going on."_ I wanted to spring at him and wrestle him to the ground. I knew there was something they didn't want to tell me.

"_I told you about the pack's bloodline,"_ Sam said.

"_Yeah?"_ I snapped impatiently.

"_It means there are only three men who could be Embry's father,"_ continued Sam slowly.

My guts suddenly clenched and I went cold. _"If you fucking tell me my asshole Dad is one of them I'm going to...!" _I didn't quite know what I was going to do, but I was certainly about to threaten my Alpha with something. I bit the thought off at the same time as his answer came to me.

"_It's not, Paul, remember what I told you. The bloodline runs through the Blacks, the Atearas and...the Uleys. You only have the gene because your great-grandmother was my great-grandfather's cousin."_

"_Shit, Sam," _Jared said now. _"Embry could be your brother."_

"_Yeah. Or Jacob's or Quil's. Which means one of our father's screwed around."_

"_I'm sorry,"_ said Jared.

"_Can we do this later, please!"_ I demanded. _"What the hell must Embry be going through right now? He probably phased because he was so upset over what happened yesterday. Let me go after him."_

"_He told you to stay away," _Jared reminded me.

"_You can overrule it now,"_ Sam told me. "_You're third in command, Paul. Now he's one of us, although the Imprint rule still applies, you're stronger. Just don't abuse it, he's going to be pretty fragile."_

"_Sam, don't you think you should be dealing with Embry?"_ Jared put in. _"Paul's too emotional; too angry."_

"_Fuck off!"_ I snarled immediately. Jared glanced at me with his head on one side as if to say 'see what I mean?'

"_Jared, right now I can't deal with this,"_ Sam said. _"Go, Paul. Jared, go with him; don't interfere until you have to."_

"_Sam! He might be your brother," _Jared said again, shocked.

"_Yeah. I know. You're wasting time."_

I didn't waste another second. I sprang forwards through the trees and began to race after Embry. I couldn't hear his thoughts, but I could feel his pain and my own was immediately forgotten, my only thought being to get to him as fast as possible and help him; protect him; make everything alright. I flew through the trees, my heart hammering. I didn't know what to expect from him. Would he still fear me? Want me to stay away? Or would the fact that he was one of the pack now make a difference? The main thought coming from Jared, a few paces behind me, was confusion about Sam's attitude, but I had gotten that straight away.

"_How would you feel if you just found out your Dad could have been cheating on your Mom? Giving you a brother you never knew you had?" _I aimed at him. _"I know what that's like, my Dad did cheat. It changes the way you look at the life you had with them. Was any of it even real if he was fucking around?"_

"_Jeez, Paul, you actually have some common sense in there," _Jared responded.

"_Yeah."_ I switched off to him again and concentrated on Embry. We were close to him now and I slowed to a walk as we reached the edge of a clearing not too far from the cliffs and spotted the grey wolf cowering amongst a clump of shrubs. _"Jared, back off,"_ I said. _"And shut your mind."_

"_Fine. But I'll watch."_ He sat down where he was and immediately his mind came to me as a blank. I walked slowly towards Embry and dropped onto my belly a few feet away from him. He looked completely terrified, but even then, when I was filled with pain and fear and worry and sympathy, I couldn't help thinking what a stunning creature he was, his soft grey fur a lighter shade than mine and shaggy from the length of his hair in human form, darker spots along his back and a pale muzzle.

"_Paul?"_

"_Yeah."_

"_What the fuck happened to me?"_ he cried, lurching to his feet suddenly. _"How could this happen? My Mom lied to me all these years; suddenly I'm half Quileute and I'm a fucking werewolf! I thought it was some kind of nightmare after what you and Sam told me! Am I stuck like this? Who's my father? Are we related?"_

"_No, we're not related," _I said at once. _"The bloodline runs through three families – Sam's, Jake's and Quil's."_

"_Jake and Quil? This is going to happen to them too?" _He leaped away from me suddenly and began to run off through the trees, his thoughts still coming into my mind as I quickly began to follow. _"My Mom always wished she never had me; I shamed her because she wasn't married. I fucking wish I'd never been born too! I wish she had a termination!"_

"_Embry, stop!" _I cried, racing after him. In turn, Jared was now following me and I found I was glad. Suddenly I wasn't so sure I could stop Embry hurting himself or doing something crazy. He was completely panicked and my own frame of mind didn't allow me to be calm enough to be much help.

We broke out of the trees and Embry skidded to a stop a few yards ahead of me, his front paws just inches from the edge of the cliff. He backed up a couple of steps and turned around to face me.

"_Em, come away from the edge. Come and talk to me, it's ok," _I said, forcing my mind not to scream at him.

"_Embry, let us help you," _Jared added, stepping up beside me.

"_Help me to what? Live like a fucking wolf? Kill vampires or whatever the hell it is you do? Do you really think I want this? I don't want any of it! Stay the fuck away from me!"_

"_Em, please, listen to me. I love you," _I thought desperately.

"_Yeah, because fate told you so."_

"_I know how much of a shock this is, we've all been there," _Jared began.

"_No, you haven't," _he said bitterly. _"You have no idea what it's like to suddenly find out you're a halfbreed as well as being half a wolf. Just leave me alone, both of you."_

"_Embry, sit down and listen,"_ Jared went on.

"_No, you listen. I've had enough of this shit! I just want to make it go away!" _He took a took a step back and one of his paws landed an inch away from the edge of the cliff.

"_Embry, stand still!" _ordered Jared.

Ignoring him, Embry took another step and we both watched in horror as his paw landed on nothing and his rear end slid off the edge. His face took on a look of terror and his front paws scrambled at the rocky surface he was standing on.

"_Help!"_ his mind shrieked.

Jared and I both leaped forward, but it was too late. He fell backwards and as we looked over the edge, his wolf body plummeted towards the choppy water below, phasing back into human a second before he disappeared into the waves. I let out a howl of fear as we waited for him to resurface, precious seconds passing until it became clear he wasn't going to come back up. Without another thought, I launched myself into the air and over the edge of the cliff.


	12. Chapter 12

CHAPTER TWELVE

**Paul's POV**

As I plummeted towards the water below, I had brief seconds to realise that I wasn't going to be in much of a position to save Embry in wolf form; I could hardly grab hold of him with my teeth to haul him out of the water. I was filled with emotion and I doubted my ability to phase back, but miraculously as I hit the water it happened. I plunged into the waves as a wolf and surfaced human. I couldn't see Embry anywhere and I immediately dived and began searching until I was forced up again to breathe. I could barely see a thing in the water with it now almost dark and as I looked up briefly I noticed the silhouette of Jared at the top of the cliff, human and getting ready to jump. I ignored him, turned in the water and kicked downwards again. Where the hell was Embry? If I didn't find him in the next few seconds he would dead before we made the beach.

My outstretched hand touched something as I dived and for a moment I thought it was weed, but then I realised my fingers were brushing through Embry's hair. I grabbed a handful before the current pulled him away from me, then reached down and caught hold of his arm. I kicked for the surface and as our heads broke out of the water, Jared appeared right beside me.

"Got him!" I gasped, flipping onto my back and supporting Embry's head against my shoulder. He was unconscious, his eyes closed.

"Give him to me, you're out of breath!" Without waiting for me to reply, Jared drew Embry away from me and began to swim towards the beach with strong kicks of his legs, propelling them both through the waves quickly. I swam alongside, my heart hammering, spitting out salt water and trying to convince myself Embry would be fine if we could just get him out of the sea. I couldn't let myself imagine what would happen if he didn't make it; I may as well die with him.

By the time we reached the sand, Sam was running down the path towards us, wearing his shorts and carrying ours which he dropped on the sand as he got to us. I barely looked at him as I kneeled beside Embry's inert body, not having a clue what to do for the best. CPR...why the hell didn't I pay attention when we had first aid training at school?

"Back off, Paul," Sam said now. He was on his knees too and I watched as he began heart massage, obviously knowing exactly what he was doing. I just sat there shivering, feeling sick and shocked, having no idea what to do for the best.

"God, Sam, do something!" I shouted at him at one point.

"What the hell does it look like he's doing? Paul, come away, give him some room," Jared said, grabbing my arm. "And get dressed, will you?"

"Fuck off, Jared!" I snarled over my shoulder at him. Damnit, I was burning up again in my panic and I tried to force my emotions down far enough for them not to affect me. I had to stay with Embry.

"Come away now," Jared persisted, gripping my arm. "Man, you're on fire!"

"I need to be with him!" I yelled. "He's my Imprint!"

"We know, Paul, but you're in danger of hurting him, you have to back off," said Jared calmly.

"Em!" I cried, hoping that somehow he would hear me. "Don't leave me! Sam, do something, for fuck's sake!"

Jared thrust both hands under my arms and dragged me backwards across the sand away from Embry.

"Get the hell off of me!" I screamed at him, fighting him off and scrambling to my feet.

I was furious, but not really with Jared. I felt helpless. Embry could already be dead; I had no way of knowing and Jared was only trying to keep me from hurting him if I phased, which I was already struggling to prevent. Somehow I had to calm myself down and I turned away from Jared, breathing deep, telling myself that Embry needed me. I snatched up the spare pair of shorts from the sand and pulled them on, then turned back to watch, grabbing at Jared's shoulder to support myself as I sagged with relief when suddenly water spurted out of Embry's mouth and he began to move.

"Oh, God, he's alive," I choked.

"Yeah, he'll be ok now, Sam's got him. Stay back, Paul," Jared said quietly. I guess he knew that my emotions were still running high and I was having to force the wolf in my to stay down.

I stood still and watched as Embry gasped and coughed. He looked deathly pale and he was visibly shaking, but he was alive. After a few more minutes, Sam gathered him up and began to head up the beach without a word, leaving Jared and me to follow him slowly back to the house.

They wouldn't let me see him for over an hour. Jared kept me in the lounge while Sam and Emily looked after him, making him take a bath and finding some of my clothes for him to wear before he went to bed in the guest room next to mine. I paced around the room constantly, my heart thumping unevenly, relief that he was ok now mingling with worry that he still wouldn't want anything to do with me. Every part of me hurt and I had to constantly restrain myself from forcing my way past the others to get to him. Eventually Emily came into the room and I looked at her expectantly.

"He's asleep," she said. "He'll be fine. Sam will talk to him some more tomorrow. Go and sit with him if you want, Paul, just be quiet."

"Ok. Thanks." I hurried to the guest room, suddenly nervous, dreading Embry waking up and repeating his request that I stay away from him.

He was curled up on one side, sleeping peacefully, covered to the waist by the quilt and wearing one of my t-shirts. I closed the door quietly and leaned against it, then just stood there for some time watching him sleep. I probably would have stood there all night except for the fact that I was completely exhausted.

Eventually I went over to the bed and sat down carefully on the edge of it. Embry didn't stir and after a while just sitting there, I stretched out behind him. I was dying to touch him, but for some time I didn't dare. While he was still sleeping I could convince myself he would be happy I was there, but if I disturbed him he could still tell me to go to hell. However after a few more minutes I slid my arm around him, edging closer until my chest rested against his back and I could smell the fresh tropical scent of shampoo in his still damp hair. He stirred slightly and I held my breath, wondering if he would wake.

"Paul?" he murmured.

"Yeah, I'm here," I said softly. Please don't tell me to go away, I thought.

"Don't go."

I heaved a sigh of relief. He was happy to have me there and at last I could relax and let my heavy eyelids droop.

"I'm not going anywhere," I said and almost immediately I fell asleep.

**Embry's POV**

I was barely aware of anything that happened after I slipped off of the edge of the cliff. I had been filled with panic and horror as I raced through the woods and being faced with Paul and Jared hadn't helped things. I knew they'd heard my thoughts because I could hear theirs and all I'd wanted to do was get as far away from them as possible. As I backed away from them I'd forced myself not to look at Paul properly, convinced that somehow he would be able to make me stand there and listen to him try to tell me everything would be alright. How the hell could it be alright when I was a halfbreed wolf?

Then suddenly I was falling and the next thing I knew I was coughing up water and Sam was kneeling over me. I was mortified to find that I was naked and closed my eyes again, hoping Paul wasn't standing there gawking at me. My only saving grace was that it was dark and then Sam suddenly scooped me up and began to carry me somewhere.

Maybe an hour later I was cleaned up and in bed wearing some of Paul's clothes and it was only exhaustion that let me sleep. I could hear footsteps constantly pacing up and down in one of the other rooms and guessed it was him; I could feel his presence and wondered how I could possibly hear the sound of bare feet on carpet, but all of my senses seemed curiously enhanced.

When I stirred some time later it was because of the slight movement of the bed as someone sat down on the edge of it and I knew immediately it was Paul even though the room was dark and my eyes were closed. The hair on the back of my neck stood on end and I could smell the musky scent of him mixed with salt from the sea. I concentrated on every breath, keeping them slow and steady so that he wouldn't realise I was awake, but I wouldn't have been surprised if he could hear my heart beating; it seemed deafening to my own ears.

I went over and over everything that had happened in my head and I began to realise that what he had said before I told him to leave me alone had been true. He had tried to talk to me in the Christmas holidays and I wouldn't listen. I'd been too hurt to give him another chance, but if he felt nothing for me, he wouldn't have even bothered to try. What did it matter if he Imprinted, really? It only made what he felt stronger. There was no one else involved like there had been with Sam; Paul only wanted me and in pushing him away I was only hurting myself. I almost died last night and it brought everything else into perspective. I lay there willing him to get closer or reach out and touch me, but for a long time he didn't. He probably thought he would disturb me and I'd tell him to drop dead.

Eventually he stretched out carefully on the bed behind me and rested against me, one arm curling around me and it was all I could do not to let out a sigh of relief. It was going to be ok, I knew it was. Once I could get my head around what I was. I couldn't keep quiet any longer and I whispered his name.

"Yeah, I'm here," he said softly. I felt warm breath ruffle my hair as he spoke and I smiled in the darkness.

"Don't go," I told him.

His arm tightened around me and I closed my eyes again. Despite everything that had happened, he made me feel safe and I relaxed at once and let myself drift back into sleep. I heard his voice murmur something else, but I didn't catch what it was as I slipped away.

When I opened my eyes again it was daylight and I hadn't moved an inch in my sleep. Paul's arm was still curled around me and I could feel the heat of his upper body resting against my back. The quilt covering part of me separated our lower halves, but I still felt the warmth of him through the fabric, even with my own high temperature. I turned my head slightly, wanting to look over my shoulder and see him, but he was lying on my hair and I was trapped. My slight movement apparently disturbed him and his hand moved where it rested on my chest.

"Em? You awake?"

"Yeah."

"Are you ok?"

"Yes, but can you get off of my hair?" I said softly.

"Sorry." He withdrew his arm from me and propped himself up and I pulled my hair free and turned over. I was still nervous, not sure what would happen and I kept my eyes lowered, waiting for him to do or say something.

"I'm sorry about everything," he said, lowering his head back onto the pillow and resting his hand on my waist.

"It doesn't matter. You couldn't have known what would happen to me."

"But I could have let you know how I felt before all of this ruined it."

"Like you said, you tried to talk to me and I wouldn't listen," I said.

"So what do you want now? You still want me to stay away from you?" he asked. He sounded so unhappy and I knew I'd made him suffer by rejecting him.

"No. The opposite," I said. I rested my hand on his chest and immediately felt the rapid thudding of his heart. I stroked my fingertips lightly over his pecs and he breathed in quickly, making me smile. His hand slid from my waist around to my back and pulled me closer against him. His lips touched my forehead and he ran his hand through my hair.

"I love you so much," he said. "I hope eventually you can believe that it's not just because I Imprinted."

"I know it's not." I brushed my lips against his throat and pressed my face into his neck for a moment. I loved him too, I knew I did, but I had never really thought I would be able to say it, or even get the opportunity to say it. Everything had been so fraught up to now that it was difficult to believe we could really be together; be happy.

"Em?" Paul murmured.

"I love you," I whispered.

What was the point in me holding it back? Even though we had only had a couple of dates, spent one week really together, so much had happened that it felt right to just tell him I felt the same. His arm tightened around me at once and he slid the other under my neck, crushing me against him for a moment before he pushed me away slightly and made me look at him.

It was the first time our eyes met since I had told him to keep away from me and that seemed like an awful long time ago. Was it really only two days? His dark brown eyes were warm and soft and the love in them was clear to see and I could almost hear the seconds ticking by as I looked into them. One...two...three. I felt like I was falling and I couldn't look away. I completely forgot where I was; forgot about everything that had happened to us; lost any awareness I had of my world and what surrounded me. The only thing left was Paul and it felt as if he had hold of a cord attached to my heart and my soul and was steadily pulling me to him; into him. Nothing else seemed to matter to me except that he was mine.

I blinked rapidly and gradually the room around us came back into focus.

"What the hell was that?" I whispered. Paul was grinning at me like a kid in a candy store and I realised immediately without him having to tell me what happened.

"Shit," I breathed and then giggled. "Is that supposed to happen?"

"Sam said if a wolf Imprints on another wolf, they can re-Imprint, but he only knows of it happening once before. It's supposed to make the couple pretty much invincible. Maybe not a good idea to do anything to actually test that theory."

I grinned. "So what now?"

"What now? This."

He leaned closer and his lips met mine, a light caressing which teased me and had me longing for more in an instant. I closed my eyes and nibbled gently on his lower lip, making him groan softly before he deepened the kiss, his lips pressing onto mine more firmly and his tongue slipping between them to touch mine, his arms tightening around my body. We had kissed before, many times during the week we spent so much time together, but this was so much more intense.

I was aware of every little detail – the rapid thud of his heart, the increased heat on the parts of my body where his hands and arms touched me, the moist heat of his mouth and the pulse in his neck under my fingers, my blood pumping through my veins, making my heartbeat keep time with his as it rushed to my groin and made me stiffen quickly. I could feel the veins in my dick pulsing as the organ strained upwards inside the pair of Paul's boxers I was wearing and I wished the quilt separating us would disappear so I could feel him against me. I wondered with amusement if he had read my mind when he suddenly grasped it and pulled it out from between is, throwing it towards the bottom of the bed before he placed his hand on my back again, then slid it lower to my butt and pulled me tight against his body. I immediately felt he was as excited as I was, the hardness of him inside the loose cut-off cargo pants thrusting against me.

We did nothing more than kiss and rub ourselves against each other, conscious of the sound of the others getting up and talking in the kitchen, but we still managed to shoot our loads into our shorts in record time, following which we cleaned up quickly with the towel I still had in the room from drying my hair the previous night. My face was hot and I avoided looking at Paul for a minute until I caught sight of him in the mirror and noticed he was as red as I was; then I just laughed.

"Sshh," Paul hissed. "They're going to wonder what we're doing."

A moment later there was a tap on the door. "You two ok? Want some breakfast?" Jared's voice asked.

"Uh...yeah...thanks," Paul said.

"It'll be ten minutes," Jared replied and we heard him walking away.

"I'll get some more clothes." Paul slipped out of the room and in a couple of minutes he was back wearing jeans and a t-shirt. He handed me another pair of jeans to put on and I dragged my fingers through my hair in the absence of a comb before we went into the kitchen.

Emily served up stacks of bacon and cheese toasties and we sat around the table eating while Sam talked some more about my surprising addition to the pack. He seemed uneasy and I guessed it must be a shock for him to find out I could be his brother.

"I still don't understand this bloodline thing," Paul said then. "How can you know for sure Embry's related to you, Jake or Quil and not Jared or me?"

"Because you and Jared are only connected by a narrow thread through grandparents being cousins. You both could have escaped phasing altogether, it's only certain if you're a direct descendant. There was something Billy Black told me when I first phased that I read up on again, about one of his father's pack who was half Klallam and half Quileute. He surprised everybody by phasing and it turned out his father was Ephraim Black, the Alpha. I'm guessing being a direct descendent of one of the main bloodlines supercedes the gene being diluted by other tribes' blood."

"Does that mean I'm more likely to be related to you, since you're Alpha?" I asked nervously.

"No, Jacob and Quil are direct descendents too, but I'm actually only standing in as Alpha. As Ephraim's great grandson, Jacob will be the true Alpha when he joins us."

"Shit, you never told us that!" Paul exclaimed.

"He told me," put in Jared and Paul glared at him. "Why don't you just ask your Mom, Embry, then at least we'll know?" he added.

"I've asked her who my Dad is, she would never tell me," I said. "She's probably even less likely to tell me anything now; we had a huge fight right before I...phased." I got the feeling that not only was Sam uncomfortable with the situation, but that despite Jared helping me he was also beginning to feel some resentment towards me.

"Well ask again, it'll make things easier if..." he began now.

"Jared, cut it out!" Paul growled.

"Boys, come on, you're brothers," Emily said. "All of you, whether by blood or not." She looked at Sam pointedly.

"Yeah, you're right," he said.

"I'll ask her," I told them. "She can't possibly hate me any more than she already does. She's disgusted with me for being gay."

Paul frowned and reached out to take my hand. "I'll go with you," he said.

"Yeah, you'll really help, Paul," Jared scoffed, shooting Paul a condescending glance across the table.

"Back off, Jared, leave him alone!" I snapped, glaring back at him, surprising myself by the quick rush of temper and something else that I had never felt before; desire to protect somebody else even if it was only from a few stupid words.

Sam stared at me and I caught Paul's grin from the corner of my eye.

"What?" I prompted.

Sam's serious face relaxed into a smile. "You re-Imprinted?" he said.

"Woah, seriously?" Jared's eyebrows rose.

"Um...yeah." I grinned and flushed. "So that makes us extra strong, right? So let's go see my Mom."

"Now?" said Paul in surprise.

"Yeah." I jumped up from the table, feeling more confident and tough than I ever had before. Maybe what had happened to me wasn't a bad thing after all if it made me feel like this.

"You don't have to, we could probably find out the truth from Quil's Gramps," Sam said.

"I want to. Anyway, I need to talk to her about the other stuff, if she'll even listen. I wouldn't be surprised if she's thrown my things out of the house by now."

"She's got the same opinions as my Dad," Paul said.

"Embry, if it comes to it, bring your things here," said Sam. "You're welcome here as long as you want. Like Emily said, you're our brother now, whether we're directly related or not."

"Are you sure?" I asked.

"Yeah. I'm sure." Sam grinned.

"Thanks...both of you." I looked from him to Emily and back, then headed for the door, Paul at my side holding my hand. It seemed that despite my fears, what I was had turned out to be a good thing after all.


	13. Chapter 13

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

**Embry's POV**

By the time we reached my house I was starting to lose my nerve a little, knowing what kind of a reception I was going to get from my Mom. I had been out all night with no explanation, was about to walk into the house with Paul and in addition I was going to demand to know who my father was. She wasn't going to be happy, but I refused to let myself waver and simply gripped Paul's hand tighter. Not only did he make me feel safe, but he made me feel stronger, like I could cope with whatever was likely to be thrown at me and I didn't let go of him until I opened the door and walked in. He followed close behind me and we halted halfway down the hall as Mom charged out of the kitchen.

"Embry! Where on earth do you think you've been?" she demanded loudly. "I've been worried sick about you! I called Jacob's Dad and Quil's Mom and neither of them had any idea where you were!"

"I'm sorry I didn't call to let you know," I said.

"Never mind calling, you should have come home! And who's this?" She switched her glare from me to Paul.

"Paul Lahote. He's a..." I stopped before I said 'friend from school.'

"...my boyfriend," I finished boldly. "The one I told you about. We sorted things out."

I couldn't see him as he stood behind me, but I knew he was smirking. Mom's mouth fell open and her face paled, but for a moment she said nothing at all.

"And where have you been all night?" she asked eventually, sounding almost breathless.

"At Sam Uley's with him and his girlfriend, Emily, and Paul and Jared. I kind of...fell in the sea last night and they looked after me." I wasn't going to tell her I fell off the cliff, it would probably shock her just as much as me thrusting Paul under her nose.

"Oh, my God!" Mom exclaimed. "Look, I think it's time your...friend...left. We have some talking to do."

"He's staying," I said firmly and continued in a rush. "I want to ask you something. It's important. I want to know who my father is."

Mom's face rapidly turned from white to red.

"Embry, I've already told you...I'm not going to discuss this with you in front of strangers!" she snapped.

"You won't discuss it with me at all, is what you mean," I said. I could feel my temper rising and I took a small step away from her until my back rested lightly against Paul's chest, hoping the feel of him there was going to help me stay calm. Then I felt a prickle of anxiety as I thought about what might happen if I did lose it, with him so close. I took a deep breath and willed myself to relax. I could feel the t-shirt I was wearing growing damp with my sweat and my chest burned.

"You'll have to discuss it with me at some point, Mom," I almost growled. "I know I'm half Quileute - I just need to know which one is my Dad. I have a right to know!"

"Sshh, settle down," Paul whispered close to my ear. "Don't lose it, Em."

I turned my head half towards him. "I know, maybe you should...wait outside, just in case."

"I'm staying," he said firmly.

"Please, Paul. I'll be fine. Leave the door open."

"Ok." His hand landed on my shoulder and gave it a brief squeeze, then I heard him walk back down the hall and open the door. I walked backwards a few steps away from Mom and waited for her to explode at me. Surprisingly, she didn't.

"How can you possibly know that?" she asked.

"Because something happened to me last night that could only have happened if I have Quileute blood. I can't tell you what and you wouldn't believe me anyway. But I know it's Josh Uley, Billy Black or Quil Ateara. So you have to tell me who so my friends don't all end up suffering over this."

She closed her eyes for a moment and screwed her face up and when she began to speak, I was amazed she didn't question me again about how I knew.

"I never saw any point in telling you," she said. "I could never have told my parents; they would have driven me out of Neah Bay when I had you and I worried if I told you, you might blurt it out one day."

"Well, we're not there any more, are we?" I said. "Sam already thinks he might be my brother and it's messing with his head. Jake and Quil don't know about this yet, but they will eventually. I don't want them all wondering and blaming me."

Mom sighed heavily. "I really hoped that somehow you wouldn't ask again."

"Well, I am asking. And this time I'll find out, whether you tell me or Sam has to go and ask Quil's Gramps."

Mom said nothing for a long moment and then to my surprise she nodded. "Let's go and sit down."

"Ok, just give me a second." I went to the door. Paul was sitting outside on the porch and I told him Mom was going to talk to me, then went back inside and joined her. I hadn't really expected it to be this easy. In fact I'd expected her to refuse point blank to tell me anything. I went into the lounge and sat down on the couch at the opposite end to where she was sitting.

"Is it really that important that you know?" she asked me. "He's not even around any more."

I frowned. So it couldn't be Billy Black. Quil's Dad had passed on and Sam's was who knew where. So it was one of them. I was relieved it wasn't Billy. He was the nicest man I knew and I couldn't have imagined him cheating on Jacob's Mom, which he would have to have done if I was his son too as I was four months younger than Jake.

"Yes, it's important," I said. "I want to know where I came from and my friends need to stop worrying about whether or not I'm their brother."

"Very well." Mom let out another sigh and leaned back against the sofa cushions. "I hope it doesn't make you think too badly of me. My only excuse, I think, is that I was young - only eighteen - and naive, but also very repressed. You know what everyone was like in Neah Bay. I did what I could to rebel, I suppose, which wasn't very much back then. Going to Port Angeles on the bus and buying myself little treats was about as far as it went." She gave me a rueful smile and I felt my eyebrows rise. She had barely told me anything yet, but so far what had come out of her mouth seemed completely out of character for her and I began to feel a bit sorry for her.

"On one of my outings to Port Angeles, I took myself to a restaurant for a meal. I'd never been to a restaurant and I doubted I'd get the chance, at least while I lived with your grandparents, so I went on my own. It was an Italian one and I ordered ravioli and a glass of red wine. I was scared to death they wouldn't serve me or they'd ask for ID because I looked so young, but I got my wine and nobody asked me anything. There was a young man at the next table - maybe a few years older than me. I noticed he was just playing with his food, but drinking several glasses of wine and after a while he kept looking up at me and smiling. Somehow he moved to my table and we talked and told each other about ourselves."

My eyes widened further as I noticed the slightly sad but dreamy smile on Mom's face and I wondered if I really knew her at all. The facade she had adopted over the years had fooled everybody and I'd always thought she was pretty unsympathetic to people's feelings and only concerned with keeping her parents happy.

"He was married," she continued, reddening a little. "He wasn't wearing a ring, but he told me from the beginning, so it wasn't as if he was trying to fool me. His wife was pregnant too, which only made it worse, but she was neglecting him I guess, obsessed with baby thoughts and her female friends, a couple of whom were also pregnant. He was left out and miserable, he tried arranging little surprises for her and buying her gifts and she kept him at arm's length. He started going out on his own or with friends sometimes and that was when he met me. Neither of us have any excuse for it. He loved his wife, but he was lonely and I felt sorry for him. We shared another bottle of wine, which I wasn't used to and somehow we ended up in a hotel room." She flushed more deeply. "I've never been more ashamed of anything in my life and he was just as mortified. He couldn't wait to get back to his family and try to make things work out and I went home and hoped no one would ever find out. Of course, they did find out when I discovered I was expecting you and my parents and everyone else were horrified, especially when I refused to tell them anything except that he wasn't from Neah Bay. I said he wouldn't support me because I knew if I admitted he didn't know, they would hound me to try and make me find him and tell him.

"I'm sorry, Embry," she added. "I know I should have told you before. I was so ashamed of myself that I didn't want to have to tell anyone, even so many years later. But don't think I was ever ashamed of you or that I regretted having you, because I'm not, even though I know I've sometimes given you that impression. My parents' and the tribe's way of living ruled my life for so long, it's not been easy to move away from that."

"I'm sorry, Mom," I said, my heart going out to her. "Did he tell you he was from La Push?"

"No." She shook her head. "It was just coincidence that I came here. If I'd known he had lived here I wouldn't have come within a hundred miles of the place. But he was long gone when we arrived. I still feel guilty when I see his family though."

She still hadn't told me who he was and I guessed it could be either Quil Ateara or Josh Uley. Quil's Dad died when he was four years old and Sam's left him and his Mom and ran off when he was a few years older than that. Obviously I had never met either of them.

"Who was he?" I asked now.

"Quil's Dad."

"Oh, God," I gasped. Somehow I had leaned more towards the idea that it might have been Josh and I knew Sam would have come around to the idea, but Quil? He had said he remembered his parents being happy when he was little, loving with each other, both spoiling him until his Dad died. He would be heartbroken to find out his Dad cheated when his Mom was pregnant with him. Quil was only a couple months older than me.

"I'm sorry," Mom said again, tears filling her eyes. "I know this is going to make things awkward for you."

"Yeah." I couldn't imagine how Quil was going to take this news and he would have to know. If I didn't tell him, he'd soon found out when he phased and heard the rest of us thinking about it, but I felt sorry for her having to go through what she did and having no one to confide in for fifteen years. "I guess it'll work out," I said. "Don't worry about it, Mom. Thanks for telling me."

"I'm just sorry I didn't tell you from the beginning," she said now.

"It's ok. Look, I'm going to stay at Sam's for a few more days. Not because of anything you said, so don't think that. I've just been a mess lately and him and the others are helping me." It was the best excuse I could come up with at that moment, but surprisingly Mom nodded at once and smiled at me.

"Alright, if that's what you want to do. But call me, ok, and let me know you're alright."

"Yeah, I will. I'll take a few of my things with me when I go. So, what about Paul?"

Mom chewed her lip for a moment; a habit I had myself when I was nervous or thoughtful.

"Are you sure you know what you want, Embry? You're still so young; it might just be a phase."

I almost laughed at her choice of words. "It's not a phase," I said. "I've always known I'm gay and now I know I love Paul. He feels the same. You probably won't believe this now or understand it, but we're going to be together until one of us dies. So I guess you'll need to get used to it eventually."

"I guess I'll have to make more effort to understand and to move away from the narrow-minded way I was brought up," Mom said slowly. "I might need a little time."

"That's ok," I said at once, amazed that she was willing to make the effort. She had been so adamantly in denial before, disgusted she had said. I scooted along the couch until I was beside her and gave her a quick hug. She returned it and held onto me for a long moment.

"I love you, Embry, and I'm sorry," she said. "Come home soon, ok?"

"Yeah, I will. I love you too, Mom," I said and got up. I gathered up a bag full of clothes and other things from my room and went out to join Paul. He jumped up as soon as I stepped out of the door and grabbed me in a hug. I dropped the bag and wrapped my arms around him in relief. What I had expected to be a pretty horrible confrontation was over and it had all turned out ok.

**Paul's POV**

I didn't know how long Embry had been in there talking to his Mom; I wasn't wearing my wristwatch, but it seemed like ages before I heard his footsteps coming down the hall towards me. As soon as he stepped out of the house I grabbed him and pulled him against me. He looked pale and strained, but not unhappy. He dropped a bag of belongings at his feet and held onto me, pressing his face into my neck. I stroked my hand over his hair and breathed in the scent of it. His hair was so beautiful and I hated the thought of him cutting it off, which he no doubt would pretty soon.

"Are you ok?" I murmured.

"Yeah." He pulled back, stepping out of my arms. "Let's walk back along the beach."

"Sure." I picked his bag up and slid my other arm around his shoulders, leading him away from the house. If we walked slow by the beach it would take almost a half hour to reach Sam's. As we walked he told me his Mom's story and despite what he'd told me about her before, I couldn't help feeling sorry for her now. Keeping a secret like that for over fifteen years with no one to confide in must have been tough and it seemed she even intended to try giving me a chance and that was a first. Considering the amount of trouble I'd always gotten myself into, suddenly things seemed to have turned around for me. Actually, they turned around since I met Embry if I thought about it.

"Are you going to tell Quil?" I asked now. "I mean, he's one of your best friends."

"Yeah, maybe not for much longer when he finds out," Embry sighed. "But I have to. He's going to find out anyway when he phases, right? Maybe it can still be kept secret from his Mom. I wouldn't want her to be upset by this and neither does my Mom."

"Quil's Gramps is bound to suspect when he knows you phased," I told him. "So will Jake's Dad. Let's just tell Sam first, he'll help figure it out."

"I guess so."

I glanced down at the bag in my hand again; Embry hadn't mentioned it. "Did you tell your Mom you're staying at Sam's?" I asked.

"Yeah." He glanced at me and smiled now. "For a few days anyway. She was ok with it."

I grinned. "You think Sam and Emily will let us share a room? I mean, if you want to..."

"Are you kidding?" Embry said. "If they don't, you can sneak in when they've gone to bed."

"Yeah, like anyone can 'sneak' with Sam's ears in the house," I smirked as we left the beach and headed up towards the house.

When we got in, everyone was there in the lounge talking - Sam and Emily on the sofa, Sam sprawling out with his head on a cushion on Emily's lap. Jared sat in one of the huge armchairs with Kim sitting sideways on him, her legs dangling over the arm of the chair. Sam began to get up as soon as we walked in the room.

"It's ok, don't get up," I said, although Sam was already upright, an arm draped around Emily now. I put Embry's bag down next to one of the other armchairs and dropped into it, grabbing him and pulling him down onto my lap before he could step out of reach and sit somewhere else. He immediately reddened, but didn't protest.

"I know who my Dad is," he said without any preamble. "You're not my brother, Sam."

"Oh!" Sam's face showed a mixture of surprise, relief, disappointment and a whole bunch of other things before he spoke again. "I kind of thought it was probably my Dad," he said. "He didn't have much in the way of morals. I suppose I got used to the idea. I didn't like to think he messed around on Mom, but I would have liked having you as a brother, Embry."

"Well, I guess we still are, just not by blood," Embry said. "Quil's my brother." He went on to relay brief details of his Mom's story and managed to make Quil's Dad sound like a victim of rejection and unhappiness rather than a guy who couldn't keep his pants on, but he didn't hide the fact that he was worried about Quil finding out.

"There's no need to tell him until after he joins us," Sam said then.

"Yeah, but then I'll have to worry about it until he does; it might be weeks; months even," said Embry.

"Telling him now might bring his phasing on faster," I put in and Embry groaned.

"He's showing no signs of it so far," Sam put in. "His Gramps reports back every so often, as does Billy Black. They both know it won't be long, but so far Quil and Jake are ok. We'll decide what to do over the next couple of days."

We all spent the rest of the day around the house relaxing and talking and stuffing ourselves with Emily's food. Jared took Kim home in the early evening and then went home himself. He wasn't needed for patrols that night - Embry was going with Sam and me for the first time and we set off as soon as dusk approached. It took Embry a while to phase; he admitted to being nervous and I knew he was uncomfortable stripping off in front of the both of us. Sam and I were already in our wolf forms and I moved away from Embry, giving him some space.

_"Stop looking at him!"_ I growled fiercely at Sam as our Alpha remained where he was and a moment later the large black wolf trotted over to me, showing his teeth in a fair imitation of a grin.

_"Catch me up, I'll set off slow,"_ he told me and headed off into the trees.

I watched him disappear and stayed facing the way he had gone until a couple minutes later a warm tongue flicked against my ear. I turned my head to look at Embry, all thoughts of patrolling immediately leaving me as I gazed into his dark eyes. I licked his muzzle.

_"You're so beautiful,"_ I thought. _"I love you."_

_"Love you too."_ He dropped his head to break the eye contact and nuzzled my neck instead. He still felt shy; I could feel it.

_"Guys!"_ Sam's rumbling voice came into our heads and we backed away from each other reluctantly and set off after him.

We patrolled the borders for a few hours and came upon nothing more than a few wild animals which quickly fled in terror at the sight of three enormous wolves trotting through the forest. By the time we returned to Sam's it was the early hours of the morning and Emily had long since gone to bed. We walked in quietly on bare feet and left the lights off.

"Sam, can Embry share my room?" I asked under my breath, not looking at him. I glanced at Embry and he was staring at his feet, his face clearly red even in the poor light.

"You're only fifteen," Sam frowned.

"I know that, we're not going to be doing anything." Much to my annoyance I could feel my own face warming up, even though we had spent the previous night together. I guessed that was allowed though, since Embry needed looking after. "Not with you in the house anyway," I added with a smirk to cover up my embarrassment.

"Go on," Sam said with a sigh and then suddenly grinned. "I'm not your parents and who am I to keep Imprints apart?"

"Cool!" I exclaimed and then slapped my hand over my mouth, hoping I hadn't disturbed Emily.

I headed to my room and Embry followed. The bathroom was actually between our room and Sam's so at least they weren't right the other side of the wall. I took my shorts off again and slid into the bed quickly, immediately excited as I thought that it was the first time we would actually have been naked together. Phasing didn't count and by the time Embry got over his shyness, dropped his shorts and joined me, I was hard and my heart was banging against my ribs. I drew him towards me and as his body came to rest against mine, my erection bumped his and then both became trapped between our stomachs. I almost groaned. I was filled with longing for him and for the first time I began to think properly about having sex with him. I wouldn't have done anything about it, even if Sam and Emily weren't around; I wouldn't have had the first clue what I was doing and realised I would probably fuck it up if I didn't somehow find out a few things. Unfortunately there was nobody either of us could talk to.

I put it out of my mind for the moment. Embry's lips were on mine and his dick twitching against my stomach and suddenly I couldn't think at all. I slid my hand between us, grasping both our erections together and stroking slowly as I kissed him. He moaned into my mouth and I broke the kiss quickly.

"Sshh, Sam will hear you," I whispered.

"Sorry."

He sniggered and thrust himself eagerly into my hand. I almost groaned myself and I withdrew my hand, rolling him onto his back and resting my weight lightly on top of him. His legs slid apart under me until I rested between them and as I ground myself against him, rubbing myself against his balls and the base of his dick, I did let out a groan. He felt so good and I was aching for release.

"Sshh," whispered Embry, giggling softly in my ear.

I thrust myself harder against him and the giggle turned into a whimper. I began to imagine what it might be like if I was inside him, fucking him, feeling his muscles around me and as he pulled his knees up either side of me and moved with me, I wondered if he was thinking the same thing. We came together a minute later, me pressing my face into the pillow beside his head to smother my groans and Embry sinking his teeth into my neck. Afterwards we cleaned ourselves up quickly and snuggled up in each other's arms.

I began to drift into sleep almost immediately and as I dozed off it was to the sound of his heart beating in time with mine and the feel of his warm breath on my skin as he nestled his face into my neck.


	14. Chapter 14

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

**Paul's POV**

Sam kept both Embry and me out of school for the next week. I knew Embry would have been fine; he seemed more relaxed than I'd ever seen him, despite getting used to being a shifter and knowing that he had to tell Quil they were related. I guessed it had a lot to do with our Imprinting on each other. Obviously that made me happy too - stupidly so, making me grin at nothing at least half of my waking day. However, I knew that me going to school without Embry was only going to make me tense and miserable and more in danger of phasing at the slightest provocation, so Sam called the school pretending to be my Dad and said I was sick and Emily did the same for Embry.

It was Tuesday afternoon when Quil and Jake turned up on the doorstep, having gone to Embry's house first and been told by his Mom that he was at Sam's. It was me who opened the door. Sam had gone into Forks to run some errands and Emily was cooking something as usual. Embry and I had been fooling about in the lounge, playing a stupid game which involved me chasing him around and trying to tickle him. Emily had told us off twice already for behaving like five year olds, although she had laughed when she did so.

So I threw the door open, panting and laughing and faced Jake and Quil.

"You don't look very sick," Jake said. "Where's Embry?"

"Em!" I shouted and backed up. "Come in."

They stepped into the hallway just as Embry appeared, grinning and dishevelled.

"Hey, guys."

"Embry, what are you doing here?" Quil asked. "The school thinks you're sick."

"Yeah, I know, Emily phoned and pretended to be my Mom." His smile disappeared rapidly. "I'm not sick, I needed some time to myself."

"Well, you're not by yourself, are you?" said Jake, looking at me now. "What's your excuse? I thought your Dad called school."

"No, it was Sam. I live here now," I said. "Me and Dad don't agree on me being gay."

Jake and Quil both looked amazed. "Doesn't your Dad care that you just moved out? You're not even sixteen," said Quil.

"He doesn't want a fag in his house," I shrugged. "You two staying for a while, or what?"

"Sure." Jake headed into the lounge and Quil followed quickly.

"Are you going to tell them?" I whispered to Embry.

"I'm not sure. I know I should. It'll be worse if we leave it until Quil joins us; he might find out by accident before we get chance to say anything." He began to chew his lip, his face worried and I slid my arms around him to give him a quick hug.

"Whatever happens, I'm here," I murmured.

"Yeah, I know. Thanks. Can you tell Emily?"

I nodded and left him to go into the kitchen. Emily promised to stay out of the room unless we called for her and I went back to the lounge and closed the door after me. Jake and Quil had taken two of the armchairs while Embry sat on the couch, which pleased me. I plopped down next to him quickly and took hold of his hand, lacing my fingers through his.

"So what's going on?" Jake asked. "Did you fight with your Mom, Embry?"

"No." He shook his head. "She's actually been pretty cool. She's going to try and make an effort to accept me being with Paul."

"So, what then? You're not getting bullied again, are you? You should have told us!" Quil exclaimed.

"It's not that either." Embry sighed heavily. "I found out something that kind of gave me a shock. My Mom told me about my Dad."

"Why now?" Quil said in surprise.

"Because I asked her and I guess she got sick of making excuses to shut me up. It turns out I'm worse than just being Makah - I'm a halfbreed."

"Em..." I hated that word and I wished he wouldn't apply it to himself in such a derogatory way. He ignored me now.

"I'm half Quileute," he added.

Both Jake and Quil's mouths dropped open.

"How did that happen?" Jake asked slowly. "I thought your Mom always lived in Neah Bay."

"Yeah, she did, she met my father in Port Angeles."

"So who is he? She told you right?" Jake prompted. "Do we know him?"

"Yeah." Embry glanced at me miserably and then looked down at our joined hands. He was shivering and his nails dug into the back of my hand as he gripped it tighter.

"Well, so long as it's not Paul's Dad, it doesn't matter, 'cause that would be really shit!" blurted out Quil, grinning.

Embry groaned softly and I glowered across at Quil. The idiot still wanted to joke about things when it was obvious Embry was upset. I doubted he would be joking when he found out it was his Dad who fucked around, but at that moment I couldn't summon up any sympathy for him and I was just waiting for him to say something else stupid to Embry so that I could jump at him.

"Are you going to tell us then, or what?" Quil prompted. "Is it someone really horrible? Because if it is, you don't have to talk to him or anything. Does he know about you?"

"Will you shut the fuck up?" I growled.

"Shut up, Quil," Jake said at the exact same time and I glanced at him and gave him a slight nod.

"No, he doesn't know about me," Embry said. "He's dead. But I still have to tell you because you're going to find out soon anyway. It's your Dad, Quil."

"What? Bullshit! How can it be? You're kidding me, right?" Quil blustered.

"It's the truth, my Mom told me," said Embry in a small voice. He pulled his hand free of mine and put both of his over his face. He was completely silent, but I knew he was crying and I slid my arm around him.

"Well, we all know your Mom's full of shit!" Quil exclaimed, leaping to his feet. "Stupid bitch, wanting to pin you on any fucker she can think of! Why the hell did she want to pick on my Dad, huh? He's not even here to defend himself! I suppose she didn't dare say it was anybody who's alive because they'd be able to call her a liar! She's probably just a slut who did it with every guy she came across! She probably doesn't even know who it is and just picked my Dad because he'd dead and you wouldn't fucking shut up asking!"

He was yelling now and Embry began to sob quietly. I was torn between comforting him and jumping up to defend him, but I decided on the latter as Quil advanced across the room, still shouting although there were tears on his cheeks too now. Jake was up, grabbing his arm and I let go of Embry and stood in front of him.

"Back off, Quil," I ground out through my teeth. "He's telling the truth. When have you ever known Embry to lie, huh?"

"He's just reciting the bullshit his Mom gave him," Quil retorted. "What the fuck did I ever do to you, Embry? Huh? You think this is funny?"

"Does it look like he's amused by this?" I snarled.

"No, it looks like he's being influenced by you too much, you're nothing but a lying bully!" Quil shouted at me.

"Quil, stop it!" cried Jake.

He tried to pull Quil away, but he wrenched his arm free. I clenched my fists at my sides, willing myself not to land one on him. My temper was boiling up inside me and I wanted to knock the little fucker's head off of his shoulders, but at the same time I knew he was only shocked and hurt, wondering if his Dad could really have cheated on his Mom a couple months before he was born.

"I'm sorry," wept Embry, getting to his feet now. "I'm sorry, Quil. I didn't want to have to tell you."

"Well, why did you, then? My Mom and Dad were _happy! _When I was a little kid they were always hugging and kissing and saying they loved each other. I never saw them fight. Mom went to pieces when he died and so did I. I don't want to hear that he went with someone else. Why would he even do that when she was pregnant? I can't talk to you right now, Embry, leave me alone."

Tears began to drip down Quil's face and he turned and ran out of the room. A moment later we heard the front door slam as he left. I pulled the sobbing Embry into my arms, immediately feeling his tears soaking into my shirt. I also felt the heat of him, the twitching of his muscles and realised with alarm that he wasn't far off phasing.

"I'm sorry, I better get after him," Jake said, reaching out to give Embry's shoulder a squeeze. "God, he's really hot, is he ok?" he asked me.

"Yeah, don't worry about it, you better go after Quil, hurry up," I said in a rush.

Embry wrenched himself away from me suddenly and fled out of the door.

"Fuck!" I heard him growl in a guttural tone as he ran down the hallway. Jake made to follow him and I stuck my arm out to halt him.

"You better wait a minute."

"What's going on?" Jake ignored me and stepped around me to leave the room.

"Shit, Jake," I groaned.

Embry didn't make it outside. The front door was closed, slammed shut after Quil's rapid departure and he phased in the hall before he could get it open. What Jake saw as he burst out of the lounge was a large shaggy grey wolf snarling and snapping at the closed door, unable to get out.

"What the hell...?" Jake looked at me, eyes wide. "This is how he knew he's got Quileute blood? The legend's true then? Oh, shit!"

"Yeah, alright, look, you can't tell anybody," I said. "Not even Quil. You had better come and see Sam though and he'll explain some things. Wait here a minute."

I sidled down the hallway past the desperate Embry, hoping he wouldn't lash out at me unintentionally. He whined miserably as I reached around him to open the door.

"Go," I said. "Run to the forest, I'll come after you, it's ok."

He bounded out of the door immediately and fled at top speed. I sighed with relief as I turned to face Jake, his face more curious than shocked.

"Are you one of them too?"

"Yeah. I'm going to go after him. You had better go and talk to Quil," I said, pulling my shirt off quickly and kicking my shoes off. I stepped outside, took my jeans off and phased in a second. A brief glance over my shoulder showed me Jake watching with a mixture of fascination and disbelief and then I left him and flew after Embry. I could already feel his anguish and hear the painful thoughts coming from him and I ran at top speed to catch him up.

**Embry's POV**

I always seemed to be running away from something. Whether it was my Mom or Paul – not that I could believe now that I'd ever run away from him before – or now Quil and myself. I'd expected him to be hurt, but I'd never seen him so angry and mean. When he had been yelling at me I had almost expected him to phase suddenly, but he clearly wasn't anywhere near ready yet. Me on the other hand – I hadn't been able to stop it. My wolf had been so keen to get out, I hadn't even been able to think about stopping it. I was in Paul's arms and I had to get away from him before I hurt him and at least I managed that, but I didn't make it out of the door and I knew Jake had seen me. That was sure going to take some explaining and I wondered if Paul would stay and talk to him after he opened the door for me as if he was letting the dog out. However, it was brief minutes before I heard Paul's thoughts as he came after me and I stopped maybe a mile into the forest and waited for him.

"_Em, are you ok?" _

I heard the question even before I saw him.

"_I guess. I hate that I hurt him so much. He'll probably never speak to me again."_

"_He'll get over it," _Paul said, appearing in front of me suddenly. He came close and nudged his muzzle against mine. _"What happened wasn't your fault, you weren't even born."_

"_No, but I told him about it and ruined his memories of his father," _I groaned. _"And now Jake knows about us; I couldn't stop it."_

"_I know. It doesn't matter, he's cool," _he told me. _"He just said something about the legends being true. I told him to come over and talk to Sam and keep his mouth shut to everyone else."_

"_He most likely hates me too," _I sighed. _"He and Quil are probably closer than ever now I spend most of my time with you and Jared."_

"_You just need to give both of them some time and then talk to them," _Paul said. _"They're going to be joining us before too long. Even though there's no sign yet, they'll be part of the pack and if you don't sort it out before, you will then."_

"_I doubt it," _I said miserably. _"I'll just be able to to hear Quil thinking about how much he hates me." _I stepped away from him and began to walk slowly back the way I had come. _"Sorry, I sound pathetic, don't I?" _I added.

"_No, just upset."_

Paul fell into step beside me and we made our way slowly home. I convinced myself I had probably lost my two best friends over this and it hurt like hell, but at least I had my Imprint beside me. I guessed I would face it and get on with things.

When we reached the house Sam's truck was back and there were two pairs of shorts waiting outside for us. We phased back quickly and put them on. It went smoothly for me, much to my surprise. I seemed to struggle when I tried to do it, rather than have it happen when I wanted it to, but maybe I was getting better. I opened the door and Sam appeared immediately.

"What happened?" he asked.

I explained everything, including my failure to control my wolf and Sam was of the same opinion as Paul – that Quil would get over it and that it wasn't the end of the world Jake found out about us. He would be happy to tell him about us given the circumstances and the opportunity arose that evening. There was a knock on the door around eight o'clock and Sam went to answer it. Jared hadn't come over yet, but it wouldn't be him – he just walked in. The visitor was Jake.

With the time for patrols drawing close, Sam sent Jared and Paul on their own, much to Paul's displeasure. He complained loudly until Jared punched him lightly and told him not to argue with his Alpha and that he wouldn't die if he spent a few hours away from me. Then he came over to give me a kiss and slouched out of the house with a scowl on his face.

Jake was pretty open to our story and showed no disbelief as Sam talked, only interest. Sam didn't tell him he would be joining us, but he guessed based on the stories he had read about Ephraim Black, his great-grandfather and the previous Alpha. He wasn't so keen on the idea that he had no choice in the fact that his life would soon change so much, but he stayed calm.

I was longing to hear about Quil, but I didn't dare ask him, sure that he would tell me Quil hated my guts and never wanted to see me again, but when he did bring the subject up I got something of a surprise.

"Quil's ok," he said. "He's just upset."

"He sounded like he hated me," I sighed.

"Yeah, he just had a shock. He knows it's not your fault. He went home and talked to his Gramps..."

"Oh, shit!" I gasped. "They all know? His Mom?"

"No." Jake shook his head. "It turned out his Gramps knew anyway. Quil's Dad felt so bad about what happened that he confided in Gramps at the time. He didn't know about you, obviously, but he said he slept with a young innocent girl. Gramps told him if he loved Quil's Mom he should forget it ever happened and concentrate on making a good life for her and Quil, which he did. Quil's Mom still doesn't know and they're not going to tell her. There's no reason why she would find out by accident."

I nodded slowly. "Will Quil ever want to talk to me again?"

"Yeah, he just needs some time to get his head around it. He said he'll come over and talk to you in a few days."

"Really?" I cheered up immediately.

"Yeah. I better get home, my Dad'll be wondering where I am," Jake said then. "Thanks for talking to me, Sam."

"No problem," Sam nodded.

"Are you coming back to school, Embry?" he asked me.

"Yeah, I guess."

"Next week," put in Sam, grinning now. "Don't think this is an excuse to get out of it. Paul will be going as well."

"Yeah, he'll love that." I smirked and got up to show Jake out. I hadn't really expected things to calm down so quickly, but it seemed that it was going to be alright after all. I was still nervous about the next time I saw Quil, but there wasn't much I could do about it except wait for him to come to me and hope for the best.

Quil turned up an hour or so after school finished on Friday. All of us were at Sam's; Emily was making a start on dinner, Jared and Kim were doing homework, Paul and I were making a half-hearted attempt to read the study notes Jared had brought back for us and spending more time gazing into each other's eyes than actually reading. Sam was in the kitchen bothering Emily and it was he who went to answer the knock on the door.

"Embry, Quil's here," he called out after a moment.

I bit my lip and stared anxiously at Paul.

"Maybe you should go for a walk or something. You want me to go too?" he offered.

"Um...no, I'll be ok." I got up slowly and went into the hall. Sam left us alone at once and I went to the open door. Quil was shuffling around on the porch looking as if he would rather be anywhere else than standing in front of me.

"Hey," I said.

"Hey. Can I talk to you?"

"Sure, do you want to walk down to the beach or something?" I suggested. "We have a house full."

"Ok."

I shoved my feet into my boots and stepped outside. Neither of us spoke until we were actually on the path leading down to the beach. I was nervous and my heart pounded furiously. I so wanted to work things out with him; he was one of my best friends and now my brother too, but I hadn't been able to stop thinking that he would still resent me for what my Mom had done.

"I'm sorry about before," he said suddenly.

"It's ok," I said at once, amazed.

"No, it's not. I was pretty shitty to you. You're my best friend – well, one of my two best friends. I got a huge shock and I was gutted to hear my Dad cheated, but I could have handled it better."

"Jake said you talked to your Gramps," I ventured.

"Yeah, and he knew! I mean, he knew Dad messed around. Dad was pretty miserable at the time and I guess he got carried away after too much wine. He told Gramps he took advantage of a young girl and felt lousy about it, both because of my Mom and...yours, I guess."

"I'm sorry," I said.

"You didn't even do anything. I'm not mad at you, Embry, you were only the messenger. I'm sorry for the things I said. I was horrible about your Mom."

"It's alright. I understood why."

"So what now?" Quil asked. "I mean...things changed a bit. Suddenly you're my brother." His solemn face suddenly split into a grin. "That's kind of weird. I mean, always having been an only child."

"Yeah, I know. It's really up to you," I told him.

Quil stopped walking and turned to look at me. "I guess I could get used to having a brother," he said. "In fact I think it'll be pretty cool."

"Seriously?"

"Yeah." He grinned wider and then surprised me again by grabbing me in a sudden hug. When he backed off a moment later he was staring up the beach in the direction we had come. "What the hell is Paul doing?"

"Huh?" I turned around and immediately spotted Paul lurking by some of the rocks some yards away, watching us. I giggled. "I guess he just wants to make sure we don't end up fighting or something."

"Damn, I wish I'd seen him before I hugged you," Quil grinned. "I'd have pretended to land one on you just to wind him up."

"Bad idea, he's really protective," I smiled. "Hey, Paul! What are you doing creeping about over there? Spying?"

He stepped away from the rocks and jogged towards us, smirking. He draped an arm around me immediately he reached us.

"Just making sure you're ok," he said, kissing my cheek.

"Jeez, you two are obsessed," Quil said, pulling a face and pretending to retch.

"Yup!" Paul agreed. "So you sorted it out, then?"

"Yeah," Quil nodded. "I guess I should let you get back to whatever you're doing."

"Studying?" snorted Paul. "Maybe not."

"Emily's cooking," I said. "Do you want to come back for dinner, Quil?"

"Um...sure, ok, if she doesn't mind."

I was relieved and still a little surprised that he agreed, but he really seemed not to have a problem with me any more and by the time we were all sitting around the table tucking into one of Emily's awesome dinners, Quil was even getting along with Paul as if they were long lost best friends, which was a huge improvement on the way they had been when the three of us hung out at Jake's.

After dinner Quil left with Kim, promising to catch up with us over the weekend and I let out a sigh of relief. It was going to be ok and now I had a brother too. He was happy to call me that, although neither of us would let anyone outside of the pack and Jake find out in case it got back to Quil's Mom. As far as the rest of the reservation was concerned, I was Makah and always would be.


	15. Chapter 15

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

**Embry's POV**

Quil and Jake both came over and spent some time with us all on Saturday. Of course Quil still didn't know about the wolves and Jake told me at one point that he was a little uncomfortable keeping the secret, but we all knew it wouldn't be for long. In just the few days since we had seen Jake he appeared to have grown in height and breadth and after they left Sam voiced what the rest of us had been thinking – that Jake would be one of us within weeks.

On Sunday I finally had my hair cut. I had put it off until then, hoping I could keep it. I was vain about my hair and it had been growing for ten years, but it was a nuisance in wolf form, rough and shaggy, blowing in my eyes and getting knotted and full of leaves and twigs when I ran through the forest. Emily cut it for me and Paul watched, looking almost as sad as I felt to see over two feet of hair hacked off with the kitchen scissors. Afterwards she spent maybe twenty minutes snipping and trimming, making me look neat and presentable and Paul determinedly gathered my lost hair into a ponytail, tied a cord around it and put it in the drawer of his bed table. If I hadn't already been near tears at losing it, him wanting to keep it touched me enough to have them spilling down my cheeks.

That night Mom was expecting me home and Paul walked there with me, intending to leave me at the door and go back to Sam's, but much to my surprise when I opened the door, Mom appeared quickly and invited Paul in too. She was shocked I'd cut my hair off and I gave the excuse that it was becoming a nuisance and getting in my way, which was at least the truth. She asked what happened to the hair and said she would have liked to save it, but when I told her Paul was keeping it, she actually smiled.

He stayed maybe a half hour before we said goodbye reluctantly at the door and I returned to Mom for a chat before I spent my first night alone in over a week. She had been doing a lot of thinking she said and realised it was the first time she had ever actually seen me really happy. She was still a little uncomfortable about me being with a boy, but was beginning to come around to the idea and after the short time Paul spent with us she even admitted that she thought he seemed nice and that he obviously cared for me.

It was more than I could have hoped for and I went to bed reasonably happy although I ached for Paul, it being the first time I had been apart from him for more than a few hours since I re-Imprinted on him. I managed to sleep fitfully, but when I woke I felt sick, my head hurt and my chest felt like there was a hole in it, almost as if my heart was missing. I realised Paul must have been feeling like this since that day in the school canteen and I threw myself out of bed immediately and went to shower and get ready for school. It was barely six o'clock, but waiting another two hours just wasn't an option. I was ready to go by six-thirty, just as Mom emerged, yawning, from her bedroom.

"Where are you going so early?" she asked me.

"I...um...I want to see Paul before school," I admitted, feeling my face heat up.

"I doubt he'll even be awake; you can't go disturbing everyone at this time of the morning," she protested.

"He'll be awake, trust me," I said and a second later my cellphone beeped with a text message.

'I need you, can you get over here before school?'

I grinned and quickly replied. 'Just about to run out the door; being apart is killing me.'

'Imprinting does that! I love you. Hurry up.'

"He's up waiting for me," I told Mom.

"Alright, but at least get some breakfast," she told me.

"I'll have some there."

She smiled now. "Go on then. Oh, wait..." She grabbed her wallet from the kitchen counter and pulled out a five dollar bill, handing it to me. "Lunch money. I'll see you later."

"Thanks, Mom!" A moment later I was flying out of the house.

I sprinted over to Sam's and Paul was outside waiting for me when I got there. We threw ourselves into each other's arms as if we hadn't seen each other for a month and then stood cuddling and kissing on the porch until Sam opened the door, telling us to put each other down and come in for breakfast. The couple hours we had before setting off for school went much too quickly and all too soon we were setting off with Jared who was still at Sam's after the previous night's patrol.

That week we fell into a new kind of routine where I would either go straight to Sam's after school or Paul would come back home with me. I was always home by nine, supposedly getting an early night as far as Mom was concerned, but on the nights I was part of the patrol I would sneak out of the window, run over to Sam's and then return at dawn. Somehow I was never caught, probably more by luck than good judgement. I never did get used to being apart from Paul, however, and knew that would never happen. I could only make the most of every minute we were together and long for us to grow old enough to make our own life together.

Over the next few weeks we saw less and less of Jake as Bella began to spend more time with him in her apparent desperation to forget about Edward. Quil and I did the best we could to distract him with other things, but nothing seemed to work and he was on a downward spiral which we seemed incapable of stopping. I began to hope he would phase sooner rather than later and that the pack would take up enough of his attention to pull him away from her, but despite his rapid muscle growth and constant complaining of being hot, he seemed to stubbornly resist the pull of his inner wolf.

It was March when it finally happened. We had all been celebrating Paul's sixteenth birthday - even Quil was over at Sam's - but Jake as usual was with Bella. In fact he had gone into Forks to meet her and some other friends to see a movie. The evening came to an end, Quil and Kim left to go home and Sam, Jared, Paul and I all went out to patrol together. It was Saturday and Mom had by now accepted me staying over at Sam's every weekend, although I knew she preferred to think a bunch of us were all camping in the lounge rather than me sharing Paul's room. We still hadn't progressed things further than kissing and touching and although I ached for more, I was happy about the way things were going. I was nervous about taking it to the next level and I got the impression Paul was too. It would have helped if we had someone older we could have talked to, but we didn't and when the time came we were just going to have to fumble our way through it. For the moment what we were doing was enough.

We all turned to head home as dawn approached and it was only as we reached the edge of the forest close to Sam's house that we sensed the presence of another wolf. He was angry and upset and we halted at Sam's command and waited as we heard pounding paws and snarling coming towards us. Eventually a large russet wolf burst out of the trees to where we waited and skidded to a halt in front of us. I immediately picked up on Jake's thoughts as did the others. The movie night had ended up being him, Bella and some guy named Mike who had thrown up at the sight of a bit of blood. They left the movie half way through and Jake decided to make a move on Bella, which she rejected, unsurprisingly. He was crushed, furious and wanted to beat Mike to a pulp so he had fled from the movie theatre and phased on the edge of Forks.

_"Jacob," _Sam greeted quietly. _"We've been waiting for you."_

_"I know. I didn't want this! Not yet, damnit!" _he retorted. _"I'm not ready."_

_"You are ready, or it wouldn't have happened." _

Sam paused to instruct Paul and me to go home, intending for him and Jared to spend some time with Jake until he calmed down_._ Within minutes I was on Sam's back porch, human again and quickly dragging on some shorts, Paul beside me.

"That bitch, Bella," I muttered. "I knew this was going to happen."

"Well, maybe it's a good thing it has," Paul said. "At least now he knows where he stands; he can start moving on."

"Yeah, I doubt it," I sighed. "He's completely obsessed with her. It was obvious to me and Quil that she was just using him, but he couldn't see it. She loves the bloodsucker, but he was sure she'd forget and turn to him instead."

"Things will change, even if it takes him a while," said Paul. "Maybe he'll even Imprint on someone; that would fix him. Bella will go right out of his head then."

"I hope so," I agreed. "It would be nice to see him obsessing about someone who actually wants him."

"Like me obsessing about you, you mean?" Paul grinned suddenly, sliding his arms around me. He kissed my cheek, then my ear and finally my neck, nipping gently with his teeth and my giggle quickly became a groan.

"You're a tease," I whispered.

"You know I'm not. Let's sneak in; Emily will still be asleep."

We opened the door quietly and tiptoed to our room. There was no sound from Sam and Emily's room or from the bathroom and we made our way to our room quickly, closed the door and fell into each other's arms.

I opened my eyes some time late to find Paul wrapped around me, his breath warm on my neck and the sound and smell of cooking drifting in from the kitchen. I carefully slid away from him, pulled my shorts on and headed for the bathroom. Emily was cooking bacon and eggs and Sam was explaining some things about the wolves to Jake who was sitting across the table from him with Jared. Jake looked up and saw me slip from the bedroom to the bathroom, but quickly switched his attention back to Sam. I took a shower, found some clean clothes and went to join them.

"Hey, guys," I said, glancing over my shoulder as Paul suddenly emerged from the bedroom, yawning and wearing nothing but a towel around his waist. I looked away and immediately coloured up as Jake met my eyes and raised his eyebrows. What must he be thinking? I shook my head slightly and sat down at the table.

After a few minutes chatting it became clear Jake was already reluctantly beginning to accept that he was now part of the pack, but what he didn't accept was that he was the natural Alpha, being a direct descendant of Ephraim Black, his great-grandfather. I wasn't really surprised when he refused to even think about taking over the role from Sam and insisted our current Alpha continue. Sam accepted it after making sure Jake knew he couldn't take it back later, but Jake didn't want the responsibility. He spent most of Sunday with us, despite feeling guilty about not seeing Quil and by the end of the day, much to my relief, had come to the conclusion that he needed to stay away from Bella to prevent himself accidentally hurting her. He still didn't accept that she wouldn't have grown to love him, but at least he had another reason to avoid her and I hoped he would move on - or Imprint as Paul suggested.

It was around late afternoon when I finally found myself alone with Jake for a little while and it took him only a moment to remember what he'd seen that morning.

"You're sleeping with Paul?" he whispered.

"Um..." My face burned. Damnit, I would have expected Quil to blurt something like that out, but not Jake; he was usually a little more tactful.

"Embry!" he gasped now.

"What? We're not really doing much of anything yet." I blushed even more furiously. "And it's not like we're ever going to break up so we're not going to regret it. We Imprinted on each other."

"Are you serious? When did this happen?"

"A few weeks ago." I smirked now. "Paul Imprinted on me at school; I was sitting with you and Quil in the canteen and just after it happened he jumped up and knocked his chair over."

"I can remember that," Jake said thoughtfully. "What's it like? When you Imprint?"

"It's like the world around you disappears; there's nothing else except that person and it feels like you would float away except for the fact they have hold of you by some kind of invisible cord. It's as if they're pulling you in, by your soul." I giggled suddenly. "Does that sound corny?"

"No, it sounds...awesome." Jake sighed heavily. "You think it'll happen to me?"

"It might." I knew what he was thinking; he had never been able to hide his feelings for Bella. "You can't pick who you Imprint on, though," I added, only repeating what Sam had already said. "You can't make it happen with the one you want. Me and Paul were just really lucky. Also just because you Imprint on someone doesn't mean they'll accept it. They can still reject you and it half kills you. I did that to Paul at the beginning." I shuddered at the thought.

Jake seemed to drift off into a world of his own then - Bella-world I imagined - and Paul came in and threw himself onto the sofa beside me, wrapping both arms around me and almost crushing me in a hug.

"Where've you been? I missed you," he grinned.

"Idiot." I elbowed him as he began nibbling on my ear.

Emily served up dinner shortly after and we all flocked to the table. Jared was missing for once as he had taken Kim to the movies, but Jake stayed, still admitting he felt guilty to have virtually abandoned Quil for the moment.

"He'll be fine and he'll soon be one of us," I said.

We were interrupted by a knock on the door and when Sam got up to answer it the rest of us watched, surprised when we spotted Leah Clearwater outside. She looked sour-tempered and uncomfortable and Emily immediately began to look just as uncomfortable, getting up from the table to take some of the empty dishes to the sink. The rest of us pricked up our ears and listened, realising Leah also had her young brother Seth with her. She was telling Sam that Seth missed hanging out with him and just because he had left her for Emily, it didn't seem right that Seth shouldn't spend time with him any more.

"I never said he shouldn't," Sam said with a sigh. "You kept him away. Seth, you can come over here any time you like on the weekends, you don't have to ask."

"Right. Good. I'll leave you to it then," Leah grunted.

She turned on her heel and stomped off and Seth followed Sam inside and joined us at the table. I didn't really know him although I had seen him around at school. He was in the year below the rest of us and I soon discovered he was a bright, bubbly, happy kid. He was delighted to be hanging out with Sam again, but I also noticed that he couldn't seem to take his eyes off of Jake. Jake didn't look directly at him from what I could see as Seth was in the seat next to him and no one else seemed to see it, but as I watched and listened to the conversation over the next hour it was fairly easy to see a crush developing. The boy was hanging off Jake's every word, his eyes following every little movement if Jake picked up his glass of juice or ran a hand through his hair. I started to feel a bit sorry for the kid, guessing that if he began spending any amount of time with us - Jake in particular - he was going to be disappointed.

Seth spent virtually all of the following weekend with us and I was again surprised that none of the others seemed to see how much he liked Jake. On Saturday, Jake's Dad needed him and in his absence Seth repeatedly asked questions about him. Sunday, when Jake arrived at Sam's on his motorcycle, Seth begged him for a ride and grinned from ear to ear as he got his wish, the bike tearing off up the road with Seth hanging onto Jake as if he meant for them to merge into one person. When they returned something was different. Well, Seth was the same, but Jake was odd. He made some excuse that he had to go home for something and took off on the bike again as if it was a matter of life or death. Seth's face fell a mile and this time the others did notice.

"That kid's pretty fond of Jake," Paul said to me. "Seems to think he's some kind of hero."

"I told you he's a god around here," Jared said with a smirk. "I'm surprised it's only Seth following him around and not all the kids on the rez."

"Maybe we ought to warn him Jake loves vampire-girl, that'll put him off," grinned Paul.

"I doubt it would work," I said, watching the boy kicking at the ground a few yards away and chewing his lip despondently, his hands shoved deep into his pockets. I got up and went over to him. "You ok, Seth?"

"Yeah."

"Sure?"

"Mmm." He looked up suddenly. "Embry, can I talk to you?"

"Yes, what about?" I said at once.

"It's...um...private." He reddened and looked away.

"Do you want to go down to the beach for a walk?" I suggested. I felt a bit sorry for him and was fairly sure I knew what he would say. I'd been there myself, only I hadn't had someone older to confide in.

"Yeah," he said at once.

I called out to the others to tell them we were going off on our own for a little while and in minutes we were heading down to the sand.

"So what's up?" I prompted.

"I'm gay," he blurted immediately. "I've known for ages, but I haven't got anybody to talk to. My friends would probably hate me. And you and Paul are gay so I thought you wouldn't mind if...I mean, I could have said to Paul, I guess, but he's a bit...scary..."

He trailed off, flushing vividly and much to my regret, I laughed.

"I'm sorry, Seth, I'm not laughing at you," I said at once. "I used to be scared of Paul myself; that's what I found funny. He's soft really, he just acts all tough."

Seth grinned quickly. "I have to admit, he seems pretty soft with you. How long have you known? That you liked guys?"

"Since my grandfather gave me the birds and the bees talk and I thought 'yuck' when he came to the bit about girls," I told him.

"I don't think they're yuck, but I don't fancy them, I fancy Ja -!" He stopped dead and blushed again. "Shit, I didn't mean to say that."

"Don't worry, I'm not going to say anything," I told him. "I kind of guessed you liked him."

"Am I that obvious? Shit!" Seth said again, looking mortified now. "Do you think he knows?"

"I think he's completely oblivious." I was fairly certain of that if nothing else. Jake only had eyes for Bella and probably wouldn't notice if Seth threw himself on the ground in front of him and confessed undying love.

"Has he got a girlfriend?" Seth asked. "I've never seen him with anyone."

"No, but he likes a girl he can't have."

"Oh." His face fell again.

"Don't get your hopes up in that direction," I said. "I really don't think he's interested in boys, even if he wasn't pining for the girl."

"Oh, well, I didn't really expect him to be."

Seth shrugged and sighed as we continued along the beach and after a moment launched into a string of questions about whether my Mom knew I was gay, what did she think, should he tell his parents and Leah and on and on. It was over an hour before we returned to Sam's, by which time Seth seemed much happier to have been able to confide in me. Paul, however, was not happy. He was pacing around outside the house, fists clenched and glowering.

"He's mad," Seth said, his steps slowing as Paul spotted us and changed direction to meet us.

"Where've you been?" demanded Paul.

"On the beach talking, don't be so grouchy," I said.

"Sorry. You know I hate being away from you." He grinned suddenly and grabbed me in a hug. "You, Clearwater, you better not be getting ideas about Embry."

"I...um...n-no, I wasn't," Seth stammered, flushing again.

"I'm kidding. Chill," Paul said, loosening his hold on me and smiling.

Seth stayed a little longer, but then made his excuses and headed for home, leaving the rest of us to prepare for the nightly patrol as dusk began to fall. As we hung around the kitchen tucking into a last muffin before heading out, my cellphone rang and I picked it up from the table where I left it, surprised to see it was Jake. We had expected him to be back by now to join us, but it seemed like he wasn't going to after all.

"Hey, Jake," I said into the phone.

"Hey. Can I talk to you?"

"Sure," I said. "Aren't you coming on patrol though?"

"No, I can't, they'll all hear my thoughts," he groaned.

"Why, what happened?" Frowning, I headed to the bedroom and closed the door wondering what he could possibly be about to tell me. Surely not something about Bella again.

"Uh...I'm not sure..."

"You seemed really weird when you rode off," I remembered. "Did something happen before that?"

"No! Yeah. Shit." There was a long silence and I simply waited rather than prompt him again. When his answer came, it was a whisper.

"I think I Imprinted."


	16. Chapter 16

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

**Paul's POV**

"Paul, go and see what's keeping Embry, will you?" Sam asked me eventually. "It's getting dark."

"Sure." It was fifteen minutes since Embry had disappeared into the bedroom with his cellphone and I went and knocked on the door, then shoved it open a crack. "Em?"

"Yeah, sorry." He was on his feet, about to come out of the room.

"What's up with Jake?" I asked him.

"I better tell you all at once. He asked me to tell you." Embry stepped past me and headed into the kitchen where Sam and Jared were still waiting. "Jacob's not coming back tonight, he's kind of embarrassed," he said.

"About what?" Sam raised an eyebrow.

"He Imprinted and he knows we're all going to hear his thoughts the minute he phases."

"Big deal," Jared said. "Can't possibly be as bad as you two fantasising about each other the whole time." He smirked at Embry's quick blush and I grinned.

"You're as bad, Jared," I put in. "We really don't want to know what colour panties Kim wears, or how much you wish she'd let you get into them!"

Embry giggled.

"Fuck off," Jared grunted.

"Yeah, alright, so let me tell you about Jake," Embry said. "He Imprinted and it gave him a huge shock; that's why he took off so fast earlier."

"Well, who did he Imprint on?" I interrupted. "There was no one here except all of us and..."

"...Seth," put in Jared. Embry grinned.

"Jacob Imprinted on _Seth?" _Sam exclaimed. "Holy shit!"

"Leah will castrate him," I sniggered.

"Why would he Imprint on a boy? That's just weird," Jared said.

"What? Why?" I glared at him. "You think me and Embry are weird?"

"I didn't mean it like that; you and Embry are gay, you liked each other before it even happened so I'd say it's lucky you didn't Imprint on girls. Jake's straight. Isn't he, Embry? I mean you know him better than the rest of us."

"Yeah and he doesn't understand it. He's pretty freaked out to be honest," Embry said. "He's all set to avoid Seth and the rest of us in the hopes that he can deny it happened."

"I better talk to him," said Sam. "I doubt he will be able to deny it without a lot of pain, but there is a way he can deal with it. Imprinting has been known to happen on mere children before now, which obviously meant no relationship such as we all have could occur. But the shifter can assume the role of an elder brother or best friend in those circumstances, so I guess Jake can be that to Seth. Look, we can't delay the patrol any longer. Jared, you're in charge and Paul, do as he says."

"Great," I grunted. It was bad enough being told what to do by Sam, but I shut my mouth and left the house with Jared and Embry as instructed. I always enjoyed patrolling anyway as well as swapping thoughts with Embry, despite the annoyance it caused the others.

As usual, we saw nothing and no one and returned to Sam's hours later, hoping to hear the gossip on Jacob, but disappointed to find the house in darkness and Sam apparently long since gone to bed. I was further disappointed when Embry took off with Jared to go home, leaving me to go to my room alone.

I didn't sleep for the few short hours left before it was time to get up for school. I always missed Embry when he was away from me and I was glad to finally drag myself into the shower at seven and then go to the kitchen for breakfast and some strong coffee. By the time I got to school, a little early to enable me to see Embry before classes started, he and Jake were already there huddled together talking and I went to join them. Jake was bemoaning his predicament and turned a bright shade of red when I appeared.

"I know Sam said I can just be his friend or brother or something, but hell, what if that changes? And what about Bella?" he was saying.

"The hell with Bella," I said. "Don't you see? This is your chance to get over her. You can't stop it happening so you might as well just go with it. You'll be happier in the long run."

"I don't like boys," muttered Jake, staring at his feet. "Imagine if you Imprinted on Sally, huh, Paul? How would you feel?"

"Well, I didn't, did I?" I said smugly, giving Embry a hug. "Aww, come on, Jake, lighten up. It's no big deal. And little Seth's going to be over the moon, he's got a major crush on you."

"Paul!" hissed Embry. "You're not helping."

"Jesus," Jake groaned. "Did Seth say that?"

Embry nodded.

"It's obvious to anyone who doesn't have their head up their butt," I put in and Embry jabbed his elbow into my ribs.

"Dickhead," Jake aimed at me and marched away from us, a scowl on his face. We watched for a moment until suddenly Seth appeared in his path and he halted quickly.

"Great timing," I said with a grin.

"Paul, can't you have a bit of sympathy?" said Embry with a sigh.

"I can't help it, I think it's funny."

I watched intently as Jake folded his arms and backed away a step, an obvious message to Seth that he didn't want his space invading. Seth had his hands in his pockets and avoided Jake's eyes, a shy smile on his face as he talked. I listened harder, calling on my wolf's senses, which I was certain Embry was doing too.

"You didn't do a thing, really, don't worry about it," Jake was saying. "I'm sorry I had to take off."

"It's ok." Seth looked up at him. "I enjoyed the ride on the bike, it was cool."

"Well, we can do that again any time you want," Jake told him, unfolding his arms again. "We're usually all over at Sam's on the weekends."

"Really? Awesome!" Seth's face lit up like a beacon and I smothered a laugh behind my hand.

"Shut up, he'll hear you," Embry whispered.

"I think he's too wrapped in his Imprint to notice us," I chortled.

At that moment Jake looked over his shoulder and glowered, then quickly turned his attention back to Seth.

"I have to go, my friends just arrived," the boy said. "See you soon."

He took off and much to my amusement, Jake stood there staring after him. Embry and I walked over to him.

"Don't you say anything," Jake growled at me before I had chance to speak. I held my hands up.

"Not a word. Oh, wait, just one. _Imprint_." I couldn't help myself. It was obvious the poor guy was confused and tormented by the unexpected turn of events, but I still couldn't resist laughing at his expense.

"Go to hell, Paul," Jake retorted.

"Sorry. Ignore me. No more teasing, I promise." I straightened my face.

"Are you ok, Jake?" Embry asked.

"Fine. Everything's cool. Why wouldn't it be? I'm happy having my head and my feelings messed with," Jake grumbled with a sarcasm I'd never heard from him before. He sighed heavily and walked off again, his head hanging.

"I hope he'll be ok," Embry said quietly.

"He'll be fine." I gave his hand a squeeze. "Soon as he gets used to the fact that he's going to like dick pretty soon."

"Stop being so awful." Embry's lips twitched none the less.

"I'm just stating a fact. It'll grow on him. If it doesn't he's in for a pretty boring celebate life."

**Embry's POV**

I felt really sorry for Jake. I could only imagine how I would have felt if I Imprinted on a girl. Paul really didn't help matters and I hated how he teased my friend, but at the same time the things he said did tickle me when I thought about it.

Jake joined the patrols with us for the rest of the week rather grudgingly, but somehow he managed to close his mind off, only letting out what he wanted us to hear. He avoided being left alone with any of us when we were at Sam's, even me, as if he feared we would all continue to add to his torment, but eventually on Saturday morning he did talk to me. I had spent the night at Sam's with Paul as usual and Jake arrived early. I left Paul sleeping and went outside to talk to him. He looked like hell I noticed, his eyes shadowed from lack of sleep and his face a touch thinner. I'd seen him every day that week, but somehow he looked much worse that morning.

"You look rough," I commented. "Sorry."

"I feel rough." He smiled faintly. "I need to go see Bella."

"You're still that hooked on her?" I said.

"Well, that's the thing. I thought I was - I still feel kind of lost and empty and like I'm longing for something, like I always felt where she's concerned, but way worse. But I keep thinking about Seth. The whole thing feels wrong."

"It's him you need to see, not Bella," I told him. "Like Sam said, you can just be his friend, mentor, whatever you want, but the way you feel is because you're not with him. I've been there and so has Paul. The more you avoid him, the worse it'll get. I know you said you'd see him at the weekend, but keeping your distance in between is what's making you such a mess."

"Yeah, I suppose, I just keep pretending it's not happening."

"Well, don't. Get to know him better." I switched my eyes to the left suddenly as I caught the glimpse of a movement - it was Seth approaching the house. "Look, here he is now," I added.

Jake jerked his head around and his eyes landed on the kid walking slowly towards us. He looked back at me quickly, a grin appearing on his face.

"Shit," he muttered wrily.

I smiled. "I know Paul winds you up, but he is right," I told him. "You should just go with it and stop fighting everything, you _will _feel better."

"Hey, guys." Seth reached us at last and stood as close as he could get to Jake without actually touching him. "Have I missed anything?"

"No, we haven't seen Jared yet and Paul's not even awake," I said. "Why don't you hang out with Jake for a while? I'll go and round up everyone else. Emily will be cooking breakfast soon."

"Cool!" Seth exclaimed at once and looked up at Jake. "Can I go on your bike again? You said..."

"Sure, but a little later, I only just got here myself."

I didn't hear any more as I went back into the house, but by the time I had dragged Paul out of bed and waited for him to shower and get some clothes on, we noticed Jake and Seth were playing soccer behind the house, both laughing and Jake looking happier than I'd seen him all week. Later after we all ate breakfast Jake took him for a ride on the bike and the kid hung around all day until he reluctantly left after dinner, saying his parents would be sending out a search party.

"Are you coming over here tomorrow?" Jake asked him.

"Um...yeah, I guess...do you want me to?" Seth blushed and smiled.

"Yeah," said Jake firmly.

"Cool! See you in the morning!" He took off at a run.

"Aww," Paul said with a smirk.

"Don't you start," Jake told him, but he was smiling.

"I wasn't going to start anything. He's a cute kid, that's all."

"Yeah. Well, I got stuff to do for a while, I'll see you later for patrol."

Jake took off moments later on the bike and I couldn't help wondering if he was running after Seth, until I heard the bike taking off in the opposite direction, heading off up the road which led to Forks. He was going to see Bella.

When he returned he told us nothing, but that night when we all phased, for once he wasn't able to keep his thoughts to himself. He tried, but little things kept slipping out. He was monumentally confused and worried about the way things were going for him. He saw Bella and she was still longing for Edward. He looked at her, thought about kissing her, imagined that she suddenly turned to him and said she loved him and for the first time he couldn't imagine himself saying it back. He talked to her, focusing everything he had on what she said and did, but he found himself comparing her to Seth, full of fun, excited about the smallest thing, chattering and laughing. He shied away from the thought of any physical contact, but he admitted to himself reluctantly that he would rather be playing soccer with his Imprint than listening to Bella whine and moan.

_"Dare we to hope you're actually getting over her?" _Paul commented suddenly.

_"Get out of my head, Paul!"_ Jake snapped, reining his thoughts in again quickly.

_"I'm not in your head, jerk, you're letting everything out," _laughed Paul. _"Don't be so sensitive, it was only a matter of time."_

_"I hate feeling like this!" _growled Jake.

_"What, like you have no choice in who you have feelings for?" _asked Jared.

_"No, I hate the idea that things are going to change. They are, aren't they? I can't just stay his friend."_

_"That's up to you," _Sam put in.

_"No, it's up to your wolf instinct," _Paul said and I was a little surprised that even he would be quite so unkind as to project out an image of Jake and Seth kissing.

Poor Jake was tormented enough as his feelings for Seth grew and his reaction to this was to spin around suddenly and launch himself at Paul in an uncharacteristic explosion of anger. He hit Paul with full force, rolling him onto the forest floor and pinning him there, snapping at him and trying to sink his teeth in as Paul thrust his front paws out and braced them against Jake's chest in an effort to ward him off.

_"What is wrong with you?"_ Jake snarled. _"Is your own life really so unfulfilling you have to try and make everyone else suffer? Or do you just get off on people's misery? You're a fucking jerk, Paul! What the hell business is it of yours how I feel about Seth or Bella or anybody else?"_

_"Jeez, Jake, did God forget to give you a sense of humour when you were lining up for personality traits?" _Paul responded. _"I take the piss all the time, it's what I do. Don't you know me by now?"_

_"Well, I'm sick of it! Don't you think I'm having a hard enough time without all your bullshit?" _

Jake lunged downwards and much to my horror his teeth sank into the side of Paul's neck. I didn't hesitate; I didn't even think. Instinct completely took me over; my Imprint was being hurt and I couldn't let that happen. My muscles bunched and I sprang, barrelling into Jake's side and rolling him off and away from Paul. We tumbled through a clump of bushes in a tangle of red and grey fur.

_"You hurt my Imprint and I'll kill you!"_ exploded out of my mind before I could stop it and I scrambled to my feet and backed away from Jake in horror. _"Oh, God, I'm sorry, I didn't mean that!"_

_"Guys! Settle down!" _Sam's annoyed growl filled our heads. _"You all need to grow up, don't you think? Someone could have gotten hurt here and for what? We're brothers, all of us. That means we're on the same side. That means you, Paul, need to be more sensitive to people's feelings and you, Jake, need to learn to take things in the manner they're meant. Everyone knows you're worked up, but starting a fight isn't the way to handle it."_

_"I'm sorry, Sam," _Jake said at once.

_"Not to me."_

_"Sorry, Paul,"_ he added grudgingly. _"I didn't hurt you, did I?"_

_"With that weak effort? Don't make me laugh," _snorted Paul. _"I'm sorry. No, you didn't. I'll stop being a jerk and teasing you, I promise."_

_"Thanks. I should probably just do what you said and lighten up and go with things."_

_"I'm really sorry, Jake,"_ I panted, mortified at having attacked him like that.

_"It's ok, Embry."_ Jake shook himself vigorously and eyed me somewhat sheepishly. _"I guess I'd have sprung at you if you...um...hurt...my Imprint."_

I showed my teeth in what I hoped looked like a grin rather than a snarl. _"It'll be ok, you know,"_ I told him.

_"Yeah. I know. I need to lighten up."_

_"Are we done?" _interrupted Sam.

All of us confirmed we were over it and the patrol continued. There was no further aggravation for the rest of the night and later Jake returned home in a better frame of mind.

The next couple of weeks passed in a similar manner, with all of us patrolling, me hiding what was going on from Mom while Jake was completely open with his Dad, given that Billy knew everything anyway. I was a little surprised that after the brief fight in the forest, Jake began to come around to his situation much more rapidly and consequently became much happier. More often than not Seth would hang out with us in the lunch breaks at school and some nights after school he would be with us all until Leah hunted him down. Jake didn't want to be anything more than friends although it was obvious Seth's crush was growing on a daily basis and eventually Sam decided to talk to the kid about the pack. Being an Imprint, obviously he had a right to know and it would then allow Jake to talk to him properly about the way things were between them. It happened one Saturday afternoon, beginning with just Sam and Seth having a quiet talk in the kitchen while the rest of us were banished from the house. We sat around the picnic table stuffing ourselves with Emily's baking as usual until the pair of them came out to join us. Seth had a grin on his face a mile wide.

"You're all wolves?" he said. "That's so cool! You're so lucky, I wish I could be one." He dropped onto the bench beside Jake and grabbed a slice of cake. "What colour are you all?"

"Grey," Paul and I said together.

"Brown," Jared said.

"Russet." Jake grinned down at him and Seth beamed wider.

"Are you gonna phase so I can see? Please? That would be awesome. If I can't be part of the pack I at least want to see you. Hey, you wouldn't eat me, would you?"

Jake laughed and nudged the kid with his elbow. "Of course I wouldn't eat you."

"Matter of opinion."

Paul's lips brushed my ear as he whispered into it. I grinned and knew I was turning red as I thought about how things had progressed between us just lately. I had wanted to taste him and shyly tried it out one day when Sam had taken Emily out to a restaurant. I was relieved I had waited for them to be out when Paul's noisy response echoed around the house and much to my surprise he had wanted to return the favour afterwards. I stuffed a corner of the pillow into my mouth so stifle my groans and squeals and subsequently we repeated the activities every chance we got.

"Are you going to phase today? Can I watch?" begged Seth, pulling me out of my thoughts, which was probably just as well. My pants were rapidly becoming uncomfortably tight.

"It's not a game," said Sam with a slight frown.

"I'll stay behind when you all go," Jake said. "I want to talk to you anyway, Seth. Then you can see my wolf before you go home."

"Awesome."

The grin didn't disappear from Seth's face for the rest of the afternoon and when dusk fell, the rest of us left him and Jake at the house and took off for the forest. It was probably a couple hours before Jake caught us up and although he did his best to block his thoughts from us, he let a little slip. He had talked to Seth for a while, explaining he Imprinted and it worried and confused him. He had only ever had feelings for Bella and nothing had happened with her except a kiss, but he believed in time he would have feelings for Seth if the boy could be patient with him. I was a little surprised he had gone as far as to say that, but suspected he actually felt more than he was admitting to. He seemed to have changed so much since Seth had been spending such a lot of time with us and it was a rare occasion when any of us heard the name 'Bella' now.

Jake confided in me later when we had phased back and reached Sam's. Paul and Jared were raiding the refrigerator and I stayed outside to talk to Jake for a few minutes before he went home.

"I gave a few things away," he said with an embarrassed grin.

"Yeah, but not as much as you could have," I said.

"Are you psychic, Embry?"

"No, but I know what the pull of an Imprint is like."

"Well, I don't have the hots for him, if that's what you're thinking," Jake said. "But I..." He glanced over his shoulder to make sure none of the others were lurking within hearing distance. "I really care about him. I guess I'm starting to love him."

I grinned. "You don't love Bella anymore?"

"I don't know. No. Yes; but like a friend."

"So? You still hate feeling like that?" I prompted.

"Nope." Jake smirked. "I guess I changed without realising it."

"Guys!" Sam's voice interrupted us and we turned towards the open door.

"What's up?" I asked.

"Quil's Gramps just called. He phased a few minutes ago."

"What happened? Did something upset him?" I asked.

"His Gramps didn't know. He just said he's been quiet and sulky for the last couple of weeks. You two come with me, you're his closest friends."

"Where did he go?" Jake asked, heading towards Sam.

"I don't know. We need to phase again so we can find him."

"Ok." I ran over to the house, unfastening my pants. What could have happened that upset Quil enough to make him phase? I hadn't noticed any obvious signs of growth, but then again, I realised somewhat guiltily that I had been so wrapped up in Paul and also spending a lot of time with Jake since he joined the pack, that Quil had often been overlooked. Considering that it wasn't long since we had discovered we were brothers, I had spent less time with him that I had in all the time I'd been in La Push. I hoped sincerely that it wasn't our fault he was upset and angry.


	17. Chapter 17

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

**Embry's POV**

As had been the case with most of us, the first place Quil ran to was the forest. Sam decided after all that we should all look for him and as soon as we phased again we could feel his anguish as he raced away from us and we set off in pursuit at top speed. As we began to gain on him, his thoughts came through to us, a hurt and angry jumble which we had all experienced at one time or another. I was upset, but not really surprised to hear my name and Jake's in his head and the guilt I already felt increased rapidly. He was unhappy and puzzled as to why the two of us had pulled away from him, spending all our weekends at Sam's and even including Seth Clearwater in our plans, while Quil was repeatedly left out. In addition, he had now accepted completely that I was his brother and felt closer to me than anyone else, but he wondered if I had had second thoughts and wished it wasn't true, perhaps hating the fact that I was of mixed blood and resenting his father and consequently him for something none of us had any control over. He understood Jake even less - the pair had been friends since they were babies and suddenly Jake's world revolved around a bunch of people he barely knew and Quil was left out in the cold.

_"Oh God,"_ I groaned, my steps slowing as I began to feel his hurt more acutely as we caught up to him and Paul immediately dropped back and stayed at my side.

_"Don't beat yourself up about it, we couldn't tell him about us."_

_"I know, but I could have spent more time with him; he thinks I've been avoiding him since we found out we're brothers." _

_"Yeah, I know, but what he's feeling is multiplied by about ten at the moment, you know that, Em. He'll be ok."_

I stopped as I came up behind Sam, Jared and Jake, all standing still and facing the new chocolate brown wolf a few yards away. His ears were back, his teeth showing slightly, a mixture of panic and rage in his eyes.

_"What the hell colour is that?"_ As usual it was Paul who couldn't contain his derision.

_"For God's sake, Paul,"_ Jared's voice said. _"What else is wrong, Quil? Did something happen at home?" _

_"Yeah, I'm a wolf and so are all of you apparently. Why didn't you tell me?" _he demanded. _"And that bitch, Kayleigh broke up with me, I can't believe it, I thought she really liked me, shit they all heard that!"_

_"Kayleigh? You mean that new girl at school?" _asked Jake._ "You were seeing her?"_

_"What, is it that difficult to believe the school clown actually got a date with a hot girl? You'd know all about it if you spent even two minutes talking to me once in a while!" _Quil growled.

_"I'm sorry, Quil,"_ Jake said._ "I'm sorry we weren't there for you."_

_"Guys, do this later,_" Sam interrupted. _"Better that we explain to Quil first what happened to him."_

_"I turned into a damned wolf, Sam, I'm not stupid, contrary to popular belief! What more can you tell me? The legends are true? I'm a shifter and we're all going to hunt down vampires and save the world? Do you really think Gramps never told me anything? He told me the whole story - he just left out the part that about it actually being true."_

_"Quil, come back to the house with us,"_ Sam said quietly. _"Talk to us properly. There's a lot more to tell you."_

_"Yeah and talking solves everything, right?"_ Quil said bitterly.

I stepped around the others and went to his side. _"I'm really sorry,"_ I said. _"I'm sorry we couldn't tell you."_

_"Yeah, and now you want me to forget it and say it's ok so that _you _feel better."_

I flinched, but I didn't blame him one bit for being angry with me - and Jake too. We could have made more effort to still spend time with him.

Eventually Quil agreed to come back to Sam's with us and by the time we reached the house it was full daylight. We phased back behind the house, Sam dragged on his shorts and hurried inside to find a spare pair for Quil. Emily immediately began making breakfast and we all sat around the picnic table. Sam filled Quil in on the parts of the story that he didn't know, mainly how our own pack developed and then touched on Imprinting. He slowly began to recover his usual demeanour and even smiled at me a few times when I told him about Paul Imprinting on me and then me returning it.

"I guess that explains you two being virtually joined at the hip," he grinned. "What about you, Jake?"

"Um..." Jake flushed vividly. "Yeah, I Imprinted too."

Paul smirked. "Wait until you hear who it is!"

"Paul!" I hissed, elbowing him.

"What?" He blew in my ear. "Only right he knows everything."

"Please don't tell me it's Bella," Quil said.

"No." Jake grabbed a muffin and took a large bite to save himself speaking while Quil stared at him impatiently. However, he was saved from saying anything else by the sudden arrival of Kim, who took a seat on Jared's lap.

"This is my Imprint," Jared grinned, hugging her tightly.

"Look who else is here." Paul nudged me and indicated with a slight movement of his head that I look to the left. Seth was approaching, dribbling a soccer ball in front of him, his face bright and eager. Jake coloured up even more, crammed another bite of muffin into his mouth and got up from the table to go over to Seth. I couldn't help a smirk as Quil stared after him.

"Is that...? Nah." Quil shook his head. "No way."

"Oh, yeah. God's gift to La Push Imprinted on Seth Clearwater," Paul said.

"But he's straight!" gasped Quil, still staring at Jake who had grabbed Seth in a headlock and was pretending to wrestle him to the ground without actually dropping him in the mud.

"Yeah, but maybe not for much longer...Imprinting can do strange things to you," I said, grinning. "It made Paul nice, can you believe that?"

"Hey!" Paul punched me lightly. "You're ruining my reputation!"

"You're soft as butter under the toughness," I teased. "I can wrap you around my little finger."

Paul just grinned. "You can tease all you like, I don't care," he said.

"You're right, Imprinting does do strange things to people," Quil said. "You think it'll happen to me?"

"It may do, it's a pretty rare thing," Jared told him.

"Yeah, it's so rare that you, Sam, Paul, Embry and Jake all Imprinted. I almost hope it doesn't happen to me if fate's going to land me with a _guy_," Quil frowned, glancing over at Jake and Seth again. They had stopped fooling about and were just talking, Seth gazing up at Jake with an adoring smile on his face. As we watched Jake's hand suddenly landed on Seth's shoulder and then stayed there. I smiled and looked back at Quil.

"Are we ok again?" I asked him. "And no, I'm not trying to ease my own conscience, but..."

"We're ok," Quil interrupted. "I get why you couldn't tell me what was going on. My nose was out of joint because I was getting left out of stuff and Kayleigh was just the straw that broke the camel's back. Or the wolf's back." He grinned at me, much to my relief. "So what happens now? Is anyone else going to be in the pack?"

"Not that we know of, at least not at this stage," Sam said. "We were just waiting for you. Now we just wait for the bloodsuckers."

**Paul's POV**

We didn't have to wait very long. Ever since I got over the first week of me being a shifter I had been impatient for some action, hoping that each time we patrolled we would at least _smell_ something, but so far it hadn't happened. Now just one week after Quil joined us, we had a hint of danger. It was Friday night and we all patrolled together throughout the hours of darkness and it was as we turned to head back to Sam's we all caught a scent of something extremely unpleasant on the wind. I couldn't really describe it - it was kind of dead, but not; a revolting stench that made me want to gag. I refused to let myself, although Embry and Quil both retched a little.

_"What the hell is that?"_ Jared asked.

_"Smells like something died and spent about a year decomposing,"_ I added, although whatever it was, it was worse than rotten flesh.

_"That's them,"_ Sam informed us. _"What we're all about."_

_"They smell different from the Cullens," _Jake mused.

_"The Cullens don't feed on humans,"_ Sam reminded him and I felt him shudder, even though he was yards away from me.

_"Are we going to hunt it or them down now?" _I asked, glancing up at the lightening sky.

_"No. They're long gone. We'll all go back to eat and then sleep so we're ready again for tonight."_

An hour later we were all at Sam's. Embry and I ate our fill and then when straight to bed. As usual, I curled myself around him protectively, his back to me. We always slept like that, with or without the threat of vampires or anything else. Since I Imprinted I had a deep urge to protect him from everything - even something as silly as Sam bursting in the room and yelling 'get up'.

Jared went to his room and Quil and Jake joined him with sleeping bags on the floor. We slept a good portion of the day away until Sam's voice disturbed us mid-afternoon and we rose to find another meal waiting for us and Kim helping Emily to serve it up.

"I don't think we're going to need to wait until night comes," Sam said as we all sat around the table. "I have a feeling they're close. Eat up guys and we'll get out there within an hour."

Jake's face paled and he pulled his cellphone out of his pocket, ignoring the food in front of him.

"What are you doing?" I asked, trying to peer at his phone screen to see what he was texting.

"Mind your own business, Paul," he muttered.

"Texting your Imprint?" I grinned. I had promised not to tease him any more, but I couldn't help just a little bit.

"Yeah, alright, if you must know!" he snapped. "You've all got yours here. What if we catch up to these bloodsuckers today and they take one of us down? Take me down? And I never got chance to tell him...what we're doing..." His voice trailed off.

I bit my tongue before I said what immediately popped into my head - that he was more keen to tell Seth how he felt than give him a run down of our proposed hunt. After he put the phone away it was only ten minutes before Seth appeared at full speed on his bicycle. He leaped off and threw the bike onto the ground and Jake quickly went outside and closed the door rather than bring the kid in and have to talk to him with all of us eavesdropping. We simply carried on eating although several pairs of eyes swivelled to the window and watched the earnest conversation between Jake and Seth. After a few minutes Jake had grasped both of the younger boy's hands in his and was staring down into his eyes; another couple minutes and he let go his hands and pulled him into a hug, his chin rested on top of Seth's head.

"Aww," I grinned.

"Can it, Paul," Embry said, but he was smiling too.

All too soon it was time to go - well, all too soon for Sam, Jared and Jake. I was as keen as mustard to get out there and take down some walking corpses with Embry at my side. I felt tough and fierce and struggled not to let myself be over-confident, but I knew I wouldn't think twice about throwing myself into the line of fire to keep him safe if I had to. The only thing that worried me was that with our double Imprint, he would undoubtedly do the same for me.

Seth and Kim both agreed to stay at the house with Emily until we came back, however long it took and as we all phased I immediately felt Jake's relief that Seth would be with the other two, rather than at home with his family worrying and not knowing what had happened until he got a phone call. At least he would have the comfort of two people who knew what we were doing.

The minute our wolf noses sniffed the air, we caught a strong wave of the smell of death and adrenalin began to pump. We were late and it was close - alarmingly close. It was only one of them, we all realised and with a six-strong pack we should be able to finish it efficiently, but we could only hope we got to it before it found a victim.

We headed straight into the forest and simply followed our noses. The creature was moving fast and was some distance ahead, but it wasn't clear if it was hunting something or running from us. Sam led the way with Jared and me close behind him, the other three bringing up the rear. I hoped to keep Embry well behind me throughout the entire operation if at all possible, but blocked that thought from the others, worried he would fight me over it.

Our pursuit of the leech led us in a seemingly random path through the trees for more than an hour, the scent growing no stronger, indicating we weren't gaining on it at all. It almost seemed like it was playing with us, leading us on a dance in the forest to keep us busy. When we reached the border with the Cullens' land, suddenly the stench was gone and it was clear the creature had evaded us by leaping across the river. Jared and I both growled in frustration, our claws digging into the earth at the edge of the drop leading down to the water. We could still smell it over the other side, but it was out of reach. A long-standing treaty between the Cullens and the shifters meant we must stay off of each other's land unless invited.

We waited a little, but the smell had gradually begun to fade and it was clear we were going to be disappointed. The thing was gone and we weren't going to experience our first kill that afternoon. We slowly began to head back through the trees, following the river for a while and then turning away to head back towards the reservation. Half way back, a mixture of scents assaulted our nostrils again and Sam halted immediately, the rest of us stopping quickly behind him. The vile smell of the leech was very strong and very close and it was mixed with that of a human.

_"Shit,"_ Jared muttered. _"Did it trick us, or are there two of them?"_

_"I think it's the same one,"_ Sam said. _"Quickly! We may still have time!"_ He sprang forward and the rest of us moved with him as one, me the closest on his tail now. It looked like I would get chance to rip one of them limb from limb after all and I was instantly filled with excitement and determination.

_"Calm down, Paul,"_ Jared instructed. _"Diving in there without a thought will get you killed!"_

I ignored him and did my best to keep my thoughts to myself again. We were almost there - the overpowering stench was making us all feel sick and as the trees thinned at the edge of a meadow, we saw both victim and prey in the middle of the open area. Bella in the clutches of a dark-skinned, dreadlocked vampire.

_"Fuck! No!" _exploded out of Jake's mind.

The scent of fresh blood was strong and the girl's legs were sagging, her body held up by the leech's hands gripping her arms. As Sam launched himself out of the trees the creature threw her from him and turned to run from his own predator. It managed to get in a lucky strike, its solid arm crashing into Sam's body mid-spring and sending him tumbling backwards onto the ground with a yelp. Immediately he was up again and Jared and I were racing to his side, Quil and Embry close behind us.

_"Embry, stay behind me!" _I cried, hoping he would take heed of the request of an Imprint and that it wouldn't war with his own desire to protect me.

_"Oh, God no! Bella! Bella! Shit!"_ Jake was gasping and I didn't have to look behind me to know that he was standing over her body. He was torn between staying with her and attacking the creature, but for the moment no one took any notice of him.

Sam and Jared's teeth simultaneously sank into each of the leech's arms and I took the opportunity to spring at his back. I snapped my jaws closed on the back of his neck as each of his arms were ripped from his body and as he fell to the ground under the weight of my paws and teeth, my mouth was flooded with the most disgusting taste imaginable. I wanted to spit it out and get away from him, but I clenched my jaws tighter, tearing out the back of his neck viciously and severing his head from his body as Sam and Jared turned their attention to his legs and tore both limbs away from the torso. I backed away, gagging and drooling, trying to get rid of the horrible taste and as I stepped aside, Jake barrelled between Jared and me in a fury, pouncing on the remains of the corpse and beginning to violently tear off chunks from its shoulders and ribs.

_"It's dead, Jake, Jesus!" _Jared exclaimed.

Sam and I turned away to find Embry and Quil right behind us, both looking horrified as they watched Jake's gruesome attack and I led Embry away again and back into the centre of the meadow where Bella lay.

_"Is she dead?"_ Embry asked.

_"I don't know. She's not breathing." _I tentatively sniffed at the body. There was a good amount of blood running from her neck and soaking into the grass beneath her and the stench of the leech was strong all around her.

_"Get away from her!" _Jake appeared quickly and dropped to his haunches beside Bella, raising one front paw to gently prod her shoulder. _"Oh, God, we were too late, she's dead, it's my fault, I should have been with her, I would have been with her if I hadn't Imprinted, what's wrong with me, she's dying __because of me, I don't even love her any more!"_

_"Jacob! Back away, she's not dead," _Sam's voice instructed.

_"No! She's going to turn into one of them?"_ Jake gasped, backing away a few feet. He was racked with pain and guilt and it emanated through the rest of us as we all watched the girl.

Bella's chest heaved suddenly and her eyes opened, then her back arched, her arms began to thrash and she let out a blood-curdling scream which made us all shudder. The screams continued, only increasing in volume as she writhed around, clearly in agony and we all backed away several more steps as we watched helplessly.

_"We have to do something!" _Jake cried.

_"There's nothing we can do. The leech's venom is spreading through her veins, changing her. It'd be better to kill her."_

_"I won't let you!" _Jake sprang forward again and positioned himself with his back to Bella, his teeth bared as he faced the rest of us.

_"We may have no choice," _Sam said. _"She has part of that creature in her. It would have been different if one of the Cullens changed her."_

_"I won't let you!" Jake repeated desperately. "You'll have to go through me first!"_

_"Jake, you have to think about your Imprint," _said Embry. _"Whatever you feel about Bella - guilt, sorrow, protectiveness - there's nothing you can do now to help her. Seth is your priority. I know you love him."_

_"Of course I love him!" _Jake snarled at his friend. _"What do you all think? But...she was my friend. I let her down."_

_"No, you didn't. None of us could have prevented this," _Sam said.

_"We could have! We were just too late!"_

Bella's screams stopped suddenly and I bunched my muscles, ready to spring if necessary, noticing the others all did the same.

_"Jake! Turn around!" _Sam ordered and much to everyone's relief, Jake finally obeyed his Alpha and turned, backing towards us as Bella sat up slowly, eyes glowing red, a puzzled look on her face. She glanced around the pack as we stood in a semi-circle in front of her, all showing our teeth except for Jake, who only looked sorrowful and hung his head. I didn't think she would attack us - six of us all at once - but who knew? Sam had told us newborns were incredibly powerful and very difficult to kill unless you used the element of surprise. She might try to take us all on, Jake included. I wondered if she even remembered him as her friend or saw him now simply as a creature to dispose of, assuming she knew the russet wolf was him.

_"Wait," _was Sam's only instruction as he sensed both Jared's and my eagerness to attack and I shuffled my feet impatiently and gnashed my teeth. I still had the vile taste of the other bloodsucker in my mouth and would rather just get on with it straight away if I had to add to it.

Bella pulled herself up slowly into a crouch, eyes darting nervously from one to another of us and then suddenly before any of us could even let out a breath, she was gone. She moved almost too fast for the eye to see, rising, spinning and running and all we saw was a flash of black - the colour of her clothes - as she disappeared into the trees fifty yards away.

_"What now? You want to follow her?" _Jared asked.

_"No." _Sam shook his head. _"We go home and I'll get in touch with the Cullens to let them know. I expect it's too late for her, unless they have something up their sleeves which they can use to take her into their Coven."_

Jake turned away and was the first to flee the meadow. His feelings of guilt and anguish were almost overpowering and the rest of us followed more slowly. It took perhaps ten minutes to reach Sam's house and we all wondered what to expect when we got there. Would Jake have gone back there, or had he run off to wallow in grief, despite his Imprint being there? We could no longer feel him or hear his thoughts and I suppose we all feared the worst as we headed across to the house. We phased back on the rear porch and pulled on the shorts we had left there, then went into the kitchen. Emily and Kim were both there and they immediately fell into Sam and Jared's arms.

"Jacob's in the lounge," Emily said.

"Oh, he's back?" said Quil in surprise.

"Yes, he's been here a few minutes. I would leave him alone if I were you."

"Why, is he still upset?" asked Embry.

"I think he'll be ok," Emily said with a smile.

Curious, Embry and I went to the lounge door which was almost closed, but not quite. Embry pushed it open a couple more inches and we peered through the gap. I began to smirk as I saw Jake sitting in one of the armchairs, Seth curled up on his lap, the pair clinging to each other as if their lives depended on it.

"Aww," I said softly and realised that this time it wasn't a joke - I actually meant it.


	18. Chapter 18

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

**Embry's POV**

Sam called the Cullens' house later than morning and spoke to Carlisle Cullen, the so-called father of Edward and the others. Due to the treaty between the Cullens and the wolves they were on civil terms with each other and since the Cullens had returned from wherever it was they had all taken off to months before when Bella latched onto Jake like the leech she now was, I knew Sam and Carlisle had spoken a few times.

After Sam finished the call, he told the rest of us that he hadn't needed to warn Carlisle about Bella - she had arrived at their house not long after she had been changed and she and Edward were apparently inseparable already.

"I thought she would have been their enemy since Laurent changed her," said Jared.

"Yes, so did I," agreed Sam. "But apparently she turned up there, told them the whole story and confessed undying love to Edward. She's a Cullen now."

I glanced at Jake, expecting some kind of reaction to this, but he was sitting on the sofa now, gazing down at Seth who was sprawled half across his lap sleeping, and he didn't move a muscle or change expression. I guessed finally he had fully accepted his Imprint and wondered whether it had just happened naturally or whether Bella's changing had given it the final push. Whichever was the case, it didn't matter. Jake looked devoted to the kid and much happier than he had in a very long time.

Sam went on to explain that there was one other vampire in the area looking for blood after the Cullens had killed her mate, James, and we had finished off Laurent, leaving her alone. Victoria was vicious, powerful and very fast and would probably be summoning up some support from other rogue vampires or even creating her own newborns before she came back to seek revenge. We must all be ready and in the meantime we would continue our nightly patrols.

During the next week or so, we did in fact encounter Victoria more than once. She would come flitting through the forest, leaping from one side of the boundary to the other while we gave chase on our side and the Cullens - including Bella now - on the other, but she was so fast. We would get within snapping distance of her heels and then each time she would be gone. It was as if she was taunting us on purpose, letting us get within reach and then showing us we couldn't catch her. Paul was particularly furious about it and much to everyone's horror, launched himself across the river in an attempt to get her before she got to the Cullens' side, but unsurprisingly he didn't make it and only came face to face with an enraged Emmett Cullen after daring to almost set foot on their land.

It was Saturday afternoon and we were all at Sam's, waiting for dusk to fall before we set out on patrol as usual. For once Kim and Seth weren't with us, Kim having been needed for something by her mother, much to Jared's annoyance, and Seth simply late. Jake had been pacing for the last hour while the rest of us sat around the picnic table, watching him pull out his cellphone at intervals and either send another text or try calling for about the fiftieth time. He even tried calling the Clearwaters' home phone, but had no reply from that either and he was growing increasingly worried.

"Maybe I should go over there," he muttered.

"If anyone was home, surely they'd be answering the phone," Paul said.

"What if something happened to him? Or one of them," groaned Jake. "I'm calling my Dad, he'll know if something's wrong." He put the phone to his ear again and we all listened in to his half of he conversation, quickly picking up that something had happened to Harry Clearwater. When he ended the call, his face was pale and grief-stricken.

"Harry had a heart attack," he said. "He didn't make it. Sue and Leah and Seth must be devastated. He was out hunting with Charlie Swan; died on the spot. God, where the hell is Seth? I have to find him!"

"I'll go with you!" Quil and I both exclaimed at the same time.

"We'll all go," Sam said decidedly. "I'll get the truck." He leaped up from the table to fetch his keys from the house, but before he had reappeared, the rest of us turned as one to face the direction of the beach, from where the sound of growling was coming.

"What the hell...?" Paul jumped to his feet and I did likewise. Could there be yet another addition to our pack?

It didn't dawn on any of us who it could be as we waited and when Sam came outside he immediately heard what we were all listening to - pounding paws and intermittent growls. It sounded like more than one.

In a few more seconds, two wolves came into view, racing towards us, both looking anguished although since none of us were phased, we couldn't hear their thoughts or figure out who they were. One was a grey colour, a little lighter than Paul and me and the other sandy and black. As the pair reached us the grey one bared its teeth and flattened its ears against the sides of its head, while the other just stood trembling and staring sorrowfully right at Jake.

"Oh, God," Jake muttered under his breath. "Seth." He phased in an instant, not bothering to remove his shorts first, and moved towards the smaller wolf.

"Hell," Paul said. "The other must be Leah. Harry's death must have made them phase."

Seth's ears came forward as Jake approached him and his eyes brightened, his tongue lolling out of his mouth.

"Aww." I couldn't help myself. "He's cute."

"Who are you calling cute?" Paul growled in my ear.

"Jealous?" I teased him.

"No. You're mine. But I don't like you calling other guys cute."

"Hey! Stop fooling around, you two!" Sam exclaimed, unfastening his shorts. "We need to join them and find out what happened."

I grinned and quickly began to take my pants off. Within a couple of minutes the pack - now eight - were standing in a rough circle and Leah and Seth's thoughts came to us loud and clear.

Leah had been the first to hear about Harry and the shock of losing her father had made her phase. She was stunned by the change, having known the legends but never believed for an instant there was any truth in them. It had happened at home while Seth watched in horror. Obviously he knew the truth, but to find out his father died and then watch his sister change in front of him had been too much and as young and undeveloped as he was, his body had changed rapidly.

Sam, shocked at the appearance of Leah in wolf form, was unable to control his thoughts and Leah's snarl became more angry as she picked up on them.

_"You Imprinted on Emily? That's why you left me? Why wasn't it me? What's wrong with you, Sam?"_

_"I'm sorry, Leah. You can't pick who you Imprint on, it doesn't work like that," _Sam said sadly.

_"No? Well, those two lovebirds seemed to manage it!" _she snapped, jerking her head in the direction of Paul and me.

_"Jake Imprinted on me and he's straight, he sure as hell didn't pick me!"_ Seth put in and then suddenly adopted a smug expression. _"I guess I grew on him though."_

_"You and Jacob? That's why you've been spending all your time over here ?"_ Leah turned on her brother now. _"You're too young for any of this!"_

_"Leave him alone," _Jake's voice rumbled and his muzzle gently bumped Seth's.

Leah emitted another snarl with no coherent thought attached.

_"Leah, I think we should talk," _Sam said. _"You and Seth are part of the pack now; we're going to have to learn to deal with our differences."_

_"There wouldn't be any differences if it wasn't for you!"_ she raged. _"You hurt me, Sam! You have no idea how much! And I hate how you can all hear my thoughts, damnit, I never told you any of this, you smug bastard!"_

_"Leah, for God's sake, you're showing yourself up," _Seth grumbled.

_"Keep out of this!" _she barked at him.

_"No, I won't. You're being stupid. What the hell does any of that matter now? We just lost Dad, or had you forgotten? Don't you think it's more important to think about him or at least get used to what we are and what the point of this is, rather than squabble about nothing?"_

_"Seth..." _Leah began on another growl, but then her breath hissed out suddenly and she seemed to sag, her head drooping. _"You're right. Of course you're right. I'll deal with Sam another time."_

It was clearly the best she could manage, but at least she seemed to settle down a little after that. Both she and Seth were agonised over Harry, but calm enough to listen to the rest of us explain what was happening with regard to the imminent threat of Victoria and any helpers she may decide to bring with her.

_"Well, let's hunt the bitch down and kill her, what are we awaiting for?" _was Leah's first thought.

_"It's not that simple." _Sam explained what he had already told us about Victoria and added that it was simply a waiting game, but that we were likely to get at least some warning from the Cullens, since one of the young females had 'visions' . She was incapable of seeing anything that related to Victoria, but if the creature picked up even one accomplice, she would know.

_"So we just have to sit on our asses and wait?" _Leah sneered. _"That sucks. She could sneak up on us, couldn't she?"_

_"I doubt it. They stink like shit," _Paul snorted and actually spat on the ground in front of him. I couldn't help laughing - a spitting wolf was pretty unusual.

_"You think it's funny, Embry?" _Leah aimed at me. _"You'll probably just hide behind your Imprint like the cowardly piece of Makah sh -!"_

_"LEAH!"_ roared Sam. _"That's enough!"_

She fell silent, but it wasn't the last time she had a dig at one or other of us during the rest of the afternoon and subsequently the nightly patrol. She only did as Sam instructed because she was incapable of denying the Alpha's orders, the same as the rest of us, but she didn't hesitate to upset everyone else. Her bitterness over Sam and the loss of Harry grew by the day, making her foul-tempered and bitchy, while in contrast Seth's misery evaporated surprisingly quickly. He had virtually glued himself to Jake's side and seemed to draw strength and comfort from him_._

What had once been a very close pack quickly became an irritable and tense one over the next few days. Without Leah, the rest of us would have been fine. Seth and Jake were now virtually as close as I was with Paul except for the fact that they hadn't even kissed properly yet. They both let their thoughts slip occasionally and it was clear they were well on the way to getting there, but Jake apparently didn't want to rush things, both because he had only just begun to have feelings for a guy and because Seth was still so young. Most of us had turned sixteen now but the cub had only just reached his fifteenth birthday.

Leah continued to go out of her way to upset everyone, although most of her rage was aimed at Sam. He became exasparated by her repeated mental attacks on him and the rest of us were all just sick of hearing about it. It wasn't until Sam received another call from Carlisle Cullen the following weekend that Leah finally got her butt into gear and concentrated and what was actually important.

The young female Cullen, Alice, had seen an army of newborns heading out of Seattle in our direction, led by an unknown male. She assumed it was Victoria's doing, but of course couldn't actually see her. It was enough, though, to assume that the redhead was at the heart of it all and Sam and Carlisle quickly arranged for the pack and the coven to meet for fight training before the enemy arrived.

It was the first time since Jake had seen Bella since Laurent's attack on her and I wondered what his reaction to her would be. We met them in our wolf forms and although he glanced at her a couple of times, he seemed to pay even more attention that usual to Seth and his thoughts were fiercely protective. Even though the Cullens were in effect on our side, he wasn't letting any of them near the cub.

Three days passed and another call to Sam advised the meeting of the pack and the coven with the newborn army was to take place in just thirty-six hours' time in the meadow where Laurent had caught Bella. Time for one more training session, a good feed and a sleep and then it would be upon us.

When the time came we were as ready as we could be. Jake and Leah both ordered Seth to stay at Sam's with Emily, but he refused point blank, pointing out that he was part of the pack and had trained with the rest of us. He may be young, but he was lightningly fast and there would be no point us leaving him behind as he would simply wait until we were out of sight and creep after us.

So there were eight of us hiding in the woods waiting for the attack to come, our clothes in a heap amongst the trees waiting for us to return victorious later as we were all determined we would. The Cullens waited at one end of the meadow, intending to rush the approaching enemy and once the fight began, we would launch ourselves onto the unsuspecting vampires from the side.

I glanced at Paul as we waited and he immediately met my eyes. We had both closed our thoughts off as much as possible up to then, but now we let at least something out.

_"I love you," _I thought. _"Don't take risks; I can't lose you."_

_"I love you too. I won't take risks, but don't ask me not to step in front of you if you get in trouble."_

_"You know I'll do the same," _I said determinedly.

_"I hope it doesn't come to that." _He stretched his neck out and his tongue flicked over my muzzle.

_"Seth, keep back as much as you can," _Jake was saying. _"I'll be watching you the whole time; I won't let anything happen to you."_

_"Don't watch me," _Seth answered. _"Keep your eyes on the vampires otherwise they'll get you. I'll be fine. I never said this before, but I guess I can now. I love you, Jacob."_

_"I love you, pup."_

_"They're here." _Sam's voice interrupted us all and we turned to face forwards, waiting for the Cullens and the newborns to clash just yards away before we began our attack.

Yells and screams ensued and Sam led us out of the trees and into the fray. There were an astonishing amount of them - probably thirty or more - but the small number of Cullens already seemed to be making quite an impression. With eight wolves added to the mix, newborns began falling left and right around us and I got my first taste of their revolting dead flesh.

I grabbed a young male by the back of the neck, crunching down through his hard flesh with my fangs, surprised by my own strength when I tore his head clean off of his shoulders. I spun around immediately and pounced on the next one coming in my direction. I tried to see what was happening with the others, but it was impossible to look elsewhere and risk injury from an unexpected attack. I could feel the others - hear their thoughts, feel their triumph at each successful kill and feel their pain when one of the vampires got in a lucky slash at them, tearing open flesh and fur, drawing blood.

I heard Paul's growl of rage and pain and I sprang over the head of an advancing vampire and landed on the back of the one who was lying half across Paul's back, trying to crush his skull with both hands. I tore off one arm with my teeth and as the creature slipped from its perch, Paul and I pounced on it as one and finished the job. So far the others were all holding their own, but one thought I picked up from a couple of the other wolves had me a little puzzled.

_"Isn't Bella supposed to be with the Cullens?"_

I realised that I hadn't seen her and even though I'd been concentrating on what I and Paul were doing more than anything, I had caught glimpses of Carlisle and Emmett, the two females and the other young male whose name I couldn't remember. No sign of Bella anywhere. I must have just not noticed her; that could be the only explanation. And yet Sam, Jared and Jake were all thinking the same thing and no one had seen Victoria herself either.

I put it out of my mind as another one of the newborns came at me with surprising speed, catching me off guard, grabbing me around the ribs and throwing me to the ground on my side. I let out a breathless yelp of pain and struggled to get up while the creature pinned me down.

_"Em!"_ Paul flew at us from nowhere, opened his jaws wide and as I twisted sideways to look back over my shoulder I saw him crunch his teeth down onto the creature's skull, smashing it into pieces so that the headless corpse slumped lifeless on top of me. I shrugged it of with revulsion, scrambled to my feet and shook myself.

_"You alright?"_

_"Yes. Thanks," _I panted.

So far there were no serious injuries on our side or the Cullens' and the number of newborns had diminished rapidly. Sam and Jared were taking on the leader at that moment, a young male named Riley, who so far hadn't succumbed to the double threat. It was then that I looked to my left and spotted Seth on the edge of the battlefield, taking slow steps backwards away from his own double threat - Victoria and...Bella.

_"Jake!" _I began to run across the field, my thoughts directing Jake too. He abandoned his decision to help Sam and Jared and joined me as we ran towards Seth. What the hell was Bella doing?

"What are you doing out here all alone?" Victoria was taunting. "A little wolf cub without any protection. What do you think, Bella? Easy pickings? Do you want him or shall we share?"

_"What the fuck?"_ Jake stopped, still yards away, completely stunned. The two females had their backs to us and hadn't bothered to check for an ambush apparently.

_"What the hell are you doing? Damnit, Jake, are you going to let that evil little bitch kill your Imprint?"_ Paul catapulted passed us suddenly, launched himself into the air and landed with full force on top of Victoria, bearing her to the ground. She rolled, dodging his teeth and threw him away from her. However angry and tough he was, he was no match for her; I knew he was going to get hurt and I threw myself into it with him, missing her with my teeth and spinning around for another try. I didn't look back at what was happening with Bella, Jake and Seth, but I could hear well enough.

Confusion from Jake as he realised what had already dawned on Paul and me - that Bella was a traitor, turned by Laurent's venom and taken under Victoria's wing as her spy, ensconced in the Cullens' camp to lure them into thinking she was part of them while she passed their plans back to the rapidly growing army and then waited for an opportunity during the battle to start picking off members of the pack. Panic from Seth as he thought Jake may still have feelings for Bella and was having conflicting thoughts about whether to hurt her in order to save him.

_"I won't let her hurt you, Seth,"_ Jake said firmly, but his feet still stayed rooted to the spot and Seth's fear exploded out of him as Bella's hands shot out and gripped the cub by the neck.

_"Jake, for fuck's sake, if you can't do it, take over here!" _Paul snarled, taking a swipe at Victoria and managing at last to sink his claws into her chest, dragging her to the ground.

_"I loved you once," _Jake thought, knowing well enough Bella wouldn't hear him, but I guessed he was doing it for himself. _"I wonder now why I wasted so much time making myself miserable. Now finally I have real love and I'm not letting you ruin it, you traitorous bitch!"_

_"Do it!" _I encouraged as I sank my teeth into Victoria's left arm and ripped it off at the elbow.

"Jacob?" Bella said, letting go of Seth suddenly and turning towards her old friend.

I risked a swift glance in their direction, just in time to see the large russet wolf give a brief nod. Then he dropped his shoulders and his head forward, almost as if he were giving in. She took a step towards him and he sprang. I didn't see any more. Victoria's intact arm grabbed me by the throat and I clawed at her while Paul came at her again from behind. The three of us tumbled to the ground in a frantic scrabbling heap and then suddenly in just a few seconds, it was only Paul and me moving. I pulled myself to my feet and backed up, looking at the scattered limbs on the ground and the detached head with its wild red hair spread all around it. We had done it. She was gone.

Paul and I both turned to look at Jake and I felt his surprise more acutely than I felt my own when our eyes landed on Bella, flat on her back with her head several feet away from her body, Jake standing to one side with Seth, eyes half closed and licking the cub's ear.

_"I'm sorry, I shouldn't have hesitated, I was just shocked. You're my life, Seth, I love you," _he was saying.

_"Better leave them to it. It's over anyway, by the look of it," _Paul said, turning back to face the battlefield.

The Cullens and the rest of the pack seemed to be the only ones still standing and although Quil stood on three legs and Jared appeared to be bleeding on one flank, there were no serious injuries. Paul and I headed slowly across to the others and Sam led us all to the trees to phase back and dress. Even Leah didn't argue for once, ducking behind some bushes with her shorts and t-shirt and emerging just seconds after the rest of us. Jake and Seth were still on the other side of the meadow nuzzling at each other and Sam ignored them for the moment.

"Did you know?" he was asking Alice Cullen. "About Bella?"

"Of course I didn't know! She betrayed all of us," the girl said, outraged. "I couldn't see past her damned sickly lovey-dovey fawning over Edward."

"She took me for a complete fool," the tall thin one said. "Or maybe I just didn't see whatever might have been there. They say love is blind."

"I'm pretty impressed with Jake, I didn't know he had it in him," Paul said with a grin, squeezing my hand. "Are we done here, Sam?"

"Yeah. What are you planning to do?"

"Go back and get some sleep, then take my Imprint out on our second proper date," grinned Paul. "Been a hell of a long time coming."

I smiled back at him. I had a feeling that finally, it would be way more than just a date, even if we had to borrow Sam's and sneak off to the forest to get some privacy.


	19. Chapter 19

CHAPTER NINETEEN

**Paul's POV**

Everyone spent the rest of the day relaxing at Sam's while I quietly planned where I was going to take Embry on a date. We had one dinner date before and I thought dinner again and then a movie. I wondered what the chances of me borrowing Sam's truck would be, so we could go and park up somewhere after, but as I thought about how to ask him, knowing he would guess what I was up to, he made an announcement. He was taking Emily into Port Angeles the next day to go shopping and see a show she was interested in. She was in the bathroom at the time and he talked quietly, telling the rest of us to keep our mouths shut so it would be a surprise for her.

"Aww, she'll love it," Embry said, beaming.

"Trying to be romantic, Sam?" I teased, even though I was planning to make an effort to do the same myself. I wasn't sure how good I'd be at it, romance was hardly my thing, but I wanted to do something special for Embry after the amount of drama we had all been through over the past few weeks.

"Shut up, Paul. And listen, guys, we're staying in a hotel for the night so I don't want any wild parties going on. Emily will skin me if we get back and find the house trashed."

"Wouldn't dream of it," Jared said. "Actually, I won't even be here, Mom asked me to bring Kim home for dinner, her sister's visiting for a couple of days."

"We won't be here either," added Jake. "I'm taking my Imprint on our first date."

Seth beamed from ear to ear at this and blushed furiously. I bit my lip to stop myself smirking. The house would be empty. I couldn't have planned things better myself. Everyone else was doing it for me. I felt a flutter of excitement coupled with nerves and hoped I wouldn't mess things up. My first proper time alone with Embry and now we were both ready for it, I wanted to make sure it was perfect.

I didn't think I would get much sleep that night, but exhaustion kicked in eventually and I barely moved until morning, dead to the world with my arms wrapped around Embry as usual. Emily cooked her customary large breakfast for all of us and then Sam sprang the surprise on her, telling her to pack an overnight bag with a 'going out' outfit and hurry up about it. She did her best to get some information out of him as to where they were going, but he wouldn't give anything away and in less than an hour, they were driving off in Sam's Mom's car, Sam smirking and Emily looking as pleased as punch. Sam had told me I could use the truck in their absence without me even having to ask and I couldn't wait to finish sorting out the date.

Jared went off to Kim's not long after, Quil went home and Jake went to the Clearwaters', leaving only Embry and me at the house.

"So what are we doing today?" Embry asked as soon as the last person had closed the door behind them.

"I have a couple ideas," I said with a grin.

"Oh, tell me!" He threw himself on the sofa beside me and snuggled against me.

"Nope! It's a surprise."

"Spoilsport. Well, I hope it involves food, I'm starving," Embry said, despite having just eaten enough to feed a family, as all the wolves had.

"Yeah, it involves food, but that's all I'm saying."

"Ok, well I'm going to get a shower," he said, drawing away from me again. "You could always join me. Since no one's here." He avoided my eyes and reddened, smiling shyly.

"Let's wait for tonight to do that," I said reluctantly. "Just in case one of the others comes back for some reason." I would have given anything to get in the shower with him, but I guessed it would be the only chance I would have to call and book a table at the restaurant I had in mind, if it wasn't already too late. There was a new Thai restaurant in Forks and I thought Embry would probably like it.

"Oh...ok...sorry." His face fell and coloured up even more.

"Hey." I pulled him closer to me again and gave him a light kiss. "Believe me, I can't wait to get my hands on you, but I have stuff planned for us and that comes later. I love you."

"I love you too." His smile returned and a minute later he got up and headed for the bathroom.

He left the door open, so I went into the bedroom and shut myself in to make the call. I was lucky - there was only one table left in the restaurant for six o'clock and it was a corner table for two. I heaved a sigh of relief and booked it, then put the phone down and checked the drawer in the bed table for about the tenth time to make sure the hings I had in there hadn't been disturbed. It was my sock drawer and I doubted Embry would go snooping through my socks unless he needed to borrow some, but I was still convinced I would get caught out.

I'd had a number of embarrassing episodes over the past few weeks when I'd managed to grab some time on my own and had cursed the fact that I had nobody to ask advice of more than once. Still, the internet was always a good source of information and I'd been really careful to delete my search history in case anybody decided to use my laptop and have 'gay sex' pop up in front of them. My face burned once again at the thought, but if I hadn't done some reading, it never would have crossed my mind to buy lube for one thing. That had been even more fucking embarrassing than reading about it. I ripped the box of condoms open and emptied the contents loose into the bottom of the drawer to make for less fumbling around later, then quickly slipped out of the room as I heard the water in the bathroom stop running.

We spent a couple hours watching television and cuddling on the sofa. I was so excited and nervous that I was sure Embry would see right through me, but he didn't seem to notice anything different. He asked a few times what we were supposed to be doing and it wasn't until just after two o'clock that I told him we were going somewhere special and suggested he go home and get changed into something other than cut-offs which we all practically lived in.

"Oh, can't you give me even a little clue?" he begged.

"No." I planted a light kiss on his mouth. "Get out of here."

As soon as he was gone I was in the shower, scrubbing myself from head to foot, drying myself vigorously and actually shaving. I preferred stubble, but I knew Embry liked my face soft and smooth, so I removed the bristles, slapped on cologne and got dressed in black jeans and a white shirt. Embry returned not long after, wearing charcoal pants and a dark blue shirt and smelling mouthwatering.

"Hey, gorgeous," I said, grabbing him in a hug immediately he stepped in the door. He giggled and slid his arms around my neck.

"You look hot," he said.

"Well, I was going to take you out for dinner, but maybe we should just stay here and nibble on each other," I smirked, brushing my lips against his ear and then biting gently. I could quite happily have dragged him straight into the bedroom, but at the same time I couldn't wait to spoil him. I let him go reluctantly, grabbed the truck keys and the house keys and shoved my wallet into my pocket.

I drove the truck into Forks and parked up in the lot behind the 7-11, then grasped Embry's hand, unconcerned about anybody we might come across on the way to the restaurant. Amusingly enough it was Mark and Stu we ran into on the main street, both of them with girls hanging onto them. They seemed surprised to see us and paused, staring as I marched past them, my nose in the air and a grin on my face, gripping Embry's hand tight in mine and wondering if the pair would dare say anything.

"Fags," I heard one of them mutter quietly just after we had passed them and before I could even open my mouth, Embry twisted his head around and snapped, "Fuck off!"

"Leave it, will you?" Stu's voice said, apparently to Mark, and that was that.

I glanced back and they were all walking away. I grinned at Embry in amusement. "I'm getting to be a bad influence on you."

"No, it's the wolf in me." He growled under his breath in a surprisingly sexy way and I wondered how I was going to survive all night with him behaving like this. I halted outside the door of the Thai restaurant now and held it open for him.

"We're going here? Seriously? Oh, cool!" he exclaimed, walking in ahead of me.

A waiter came to take us to our table and as we walked down the long dimly lit room I grinned to myself as I saw Jake and Set sitting in a small alcove, each holding a menu and neither of them looking at it as they gazed into each other's eyes instead.

When we sat down and were given the menus, I ordered two cokes to be going on with. I didn't know anything about Thai food, but Embry somehow did and had been eagerly awaiting the opportunity to try out the restaurant since it had been advertised. I was pleased that I had made the right choice and let him make suggestions of what we should try, although I actually did the ordering. We had a platter of starters to share and then a green chicken curry for me and Embry had a shrimp dish although we shared those too. We finished with icecream, feeding each other spoonfuls and then lingering over coffee, smooching in the corner and earning giggles from Seth as he walked past us to the restrooms.

"You can laugh," I teased. "We saw you when we came in, all loved up."

"Sshh!" hissed Seth, his blush obvious even in the low lighting. He walked off quickly and Embry elbowed me.

"Don't tease him, he's shy. Like me."

"Shy? Bull," I grinned. "What was that about the shower earlier?"

Embry grinned. "Yeah, but there was no one to hear us."

I smiled and leaned closer again to give him another kiss. "You know how much I love you?" I whispered.

"About as much as I love you?"

I gave him another soft kiss and then drew back reluctantly and gulped the last of my coffee, glancing at my wristwatch. "We better get out of here or we'll be late." I summoned the waiter and asked for the check, hoping it wasn't going to completely empty my wallet.

"Late for what?" Embry asked.

"Movie." I handed over a bunch of notes to the waiter, relieved that I still had plenty left.

"Oh, cool, what are we seeing?"

"Your choice. There's a bunch of things on," I said. "The Da Vinci Code, Poseidon, Lucky Number Slevin, if they'll let us in. It's an R rating, but we easily look old enough since the wolf growth," I grinned.

"Let's go for that, I've seen the trailer and it looks great," Embry said at once.

We walked down the street to the movie theatre and I went to buy tickets. The guy on the desk barely even looked at me when I asked to see Lucky Number Slevin and minutes later we were in the back row watching the commercials before the trailers started. The movie was great, right up to the part where Slevin warned Yitzchok that he was supposed to kill him and then I was too distracted by Embry to notice whether he actually did kill him or not. I leaned over to give him a kiss and our lips clung, seemingly endlessly. Finally I had him to myself without the rest of the pack or the threat of vampires or any other crap getting in our way and we only managed to pull ourselves apart when The Boss and The Rabbi were tied to their chairs suffocating near the end of the movie.

We left hand in hand as the credits rolled and walked slowly back down the street to find the truck. My heart was pounding with excitement and my pants way too tight from the prolonged kissing and I couldn't wait to get back to the house. I drove one-handed, happy the truck had automatic transmission because it left my other arm free to wrap around Embry and hold him close to my side as we travelled back to the reservation.

It was pitch dark by the time we reached the house and I parked up behind it and let us in through the rear door, shoved it closed after us and then leaned on it, pulling Embry close to me. Our lips met again and his body pressed against mine. I could feel his heart hammering in his chest, rapid and uneven just as mine was and I wondered if he had the same thing in mind that I did. He was certainly as aroused as I was and the feel of him only excited me more. I pushed him away from me slightly, grasped his hand and led him to my room, telling myself to stop being so damned nervous. Tough guy Paul worried about having sex? It was hardly like Embry and I hadn't done anything at all, but I supposed my main worry was that I might hurt him.

However, by the time we were in my room with the door closed, the only light coming from the glow of the half moon shining in the corner of the window, I stopped thinking so much and went with instinct. Embry melted into my arms, we sank onto the bed, kissing breathlessly and gradually removing each other's clothes, stroked our hands over each other's bodies, teasing each other into a rapid loss of control, panting and laughing and grabbing for one of the towels which seemed to have taken up residence in the room just lately.

We lay holding each other and talking softly, breathing in each other's scent until excitement took over and I began to kiss Embry again, devouring him and finally putting into practise what I'd been reading about. I was as gentle as I could be, spending time teasing him, preparing him and when we made love he made no sign that I hurt him at all. As I looked down into his eyes it was almost like Imprinting all over again. Everything around us faded out and there was only Embry, wrapped around me, telling me he loved me, gazing back at me as if he were almost drowning the same way I was.

Later we did take that shower together Embry had taunted me with and it was the early hours of the morning before we finally got into bed and lay down with the intention of sleeping. As usual, Embry curled up with his back to me and I folded my arms around him, pressing my face into his neck, drifting into sleep feeling his heartbeat under my palm and thinking about how different I was since I had arrived in La Push less than a year ago. Yeah, I was a wolf inside, but it wasn't that; I'd arrived an outcast - hated in my old town for being Native and hated here for being my usual self with my foul temper and readiness with my fists. Now I belonged - to the pack and to Embry; I had found my soul mate and my whole reason for living.

**Embry's POV**

As I lay in Paul's arms, my eyes too heavy to stay open any longer, I thought back over the evening, unable to keep the smile off of my lips. He had gone to so much effort to give me a wonderful romantic evening and when we made love it had been perfect. I had known it would be; we had waited so long, but it had been so worth it and it was only the beginning. We were part of each other and I knew it would have been that way with or without the Imprints. He was my life and I knew he would never let me go. His breathing slowed and his arm grew heavy around me as he fell asleep and I stopped thinking and let myself slip away to join him.


End file.
